DANVERS — Several local nonprofits have received Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF) grants from its Essex County COVID-19 Response Fund, established in March to support nonprofits on the frontlines of the pandemic response in Essex County.
This fourth round of grants — which totals $650,000 directed to hunger and healthcare nonprofits and support for creative gig workers — includes $600,000 of funding from the Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund, established by first lady Lauren Baker and the One8 Foundation to support those most impacted by COVID-19. This statewide fund works in concert with regional community foundations to strategically fill in where gaps are pronounced.
Among those receiving grants are Greater Lynn Senior Services, My Brother’s Table in Lynn, Salvation Army in Lynn, LHAND/Food for Thought — Lynn Food Collaboration, Lynn Community Health Center, Northeast Arc, Good Hope Foods at Calvary Christian Church in Lynnfield, The Food Project, Citizens Inn | Haven From Hunger in Peabody, The Salem Food Pantry, Salvation Army in Salem, Saugus United Parish Food Pantry, St. John the Evangelist Church in Swampscott, and North Shore Community Health.
This most recent round of funding is focused almost exclusively on food insecurity and support for frontline essential workers. The $650,000 is being distributed to 43 organizations including food pantries and collaborations, social service organizations and community hospitals and health centers.
In addition to supporting hunger and healthcare nonprofits, $25,000 from the Essex County COVID-19 Response Fund will be used to support individual Essex County artists — who have also been hit hard by the pandemic — through the Essex County Artist Fund.
To date, ECCF has awarded nearly $1.9 million to 124 nonprofits battling COVID-19 and the resulting economic fallout of the virus.