Amazon launches $250K community fund to support St. Joseph County orgs
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Amazon has launched its St. Joseph County Community Fund by making donations totaling $250,000 to 31 area organization and programs.
Through awards ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, recipients will address issues of sustainability, economic development, workforce development, homelessness, hunger, as well as develop programs around science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, the company said.
“These community funds are something that we really like to do, especially when we come into a new community, to help us learn the community,” Amazon Web Services (AWS) Head of InCommunities, Americas, Sarah Georgiades said. “We’re really excited to be able to come in, learn from the local nonprofits and local community leaders as a good neighbor and community member for many years to come.”
As part of its corporate social responsibility efforts, the e-commerce giant partnered with ChangeX, a nonprofit providing due diligence services, to vet applications and select finalists.
The program is part of AWS’s planned investment of $11 billion across Indiana that includes a major data center in New Carlisle. Officials broke ground on the project in September.
Unity Gardens was awarded $10,000 for its site on LaSalle Square to connect community members with fresh food, nature and one another through free-pick gardens, classes and wellness programs.
“When you go to a charity, we all know the rules. There’s this invisible line where I’m on one side of the line handing poor people food,” Unity Gardens Executive Director Sara Stewart said. “Unity Garden erased that line between those who give and those who receive so that way we can all enjoy connecting to nature, healthy food and one another.”
Along with her team, Stewart aims to create a space where uplifting social connections sprout, leading to opportunities and quality relationships. The nonprofit offers tasting tours and garden guides to help visitors pick out what they may need. She added that AWS employees started volunteering at the garden last summer.
“When someone as powerful as Amazon decides to invest in something as grassroots, literally, as Unity Gardens, it’s not just the monetary donation or the publicity,” Stewart said. “It’s also the vote of confidence and the fact that Amazon is invested in the relationships that make our community great.”
Cultivate Food Rescue was also awarded $10,000 in support of its mission to rescue four million pounds of food, combating hunger and food waste through strategic partnerships and technology.
“That’s a great way to establish yourself as a new company coming to the area,” Cultivate Food Rescue Director of Outreach Laura McNally said. “Sometimes with big conglomerates, there can be pushback or skepticism, so what a great way to introduce yourself to the community, by connecting with those that are helping lift it up.”
The organization receives surplus food from restaurants, grocery stores and other distributors, and adds it to a digital inventory where over 200 local pantries can make orders for either delivery or pickup. It also provide a frozen meal backpack program to plug the feeding gap on weekends for 1,500 students who qualify for free and reduced lunch at school during the week.
“Just as Amazon is a logistics company, we really are too. We recognize that there’s an abundance of food in this country and there’s a disconnect between those that have it and those that don’t,” McNally said. “We are pretty simple in our approach of connecting those dots and it takes coordination and funding to do that. We’re very grateful for AWS and the other donors who take a risk on us.”
The funds will help Cultivate provide more than 14,000 meals across St. Joseph, Elkhart and Marshall counties. McNally said they first heard about the funding opportunity through the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Launched four years ago in Ireland, the Amazon Community Fund was designed to provide individuals, community groups, schools, nonprofits and other organizations with resources to drive positive change and have a meaningful and lasting impact on the neighborhoods they call home.
ChangeX will disburse 70% of the awards upfront and Georgiades said that the awardees will need to provide status updates to receive the remaining 30% of their funds.
“At Amazon, one of our leadership principles is success and scale bring broad responsibility. We’re very fortunate that we can truly live that leadership principle in the communities in which we live and work,” Georgiades said. “We also believe in customer obsession and community obsession, helping the community in the way that meets their needs.”
The other funding recipients are:
- A Rosie Place for Children
- CDFI Friendly South Bend
- Christian Life Center South Bend
- Community Food Pantry of New Carlisle
- Discover New Carlisle
- Dismas House of Indiana
- Greater Impact
- Green Bridge Growers
- Boy Scouts
- Lincoln Elementary School
- Michiana Center for Music
- Mishawaka Troop Town
- Near Northwest Neighborhood
- New Carlisle Fire Department
- New Carlisle Olive Township Public Library
- New Prairie High School Model United Nations
- Purdue Polytechnic High School South Bend
- REAL Services, Reins of Life
- Ronald McDonald House Michiana
- South Bend Code School
- St. Joseph County Parks Foundation
- St. Joseph County Public Library Foundation
- Stroll Care
- Studebaker National Museum
- VicTory 4 Kidz