GT Members Select Grantees at Annual Meeting

GT members gathered at the end of September for our seventh Annual Meeting. The night began with a brief social hour and then got down to business. We elected four board members - Sheryl Donaldson, Karen Gilgoff, Renee Licht and Jeanne Spivak - who will serve for the next two years, and chose GT’s 2016-17 grantee organizations.

All the grant-award finalists – selected by the Grants Committee after months of discussion and site visits – made presentations to the membership. The four non-profit organizations work in the area of food and nutrition – the theme chosen by GT members for our 2016-17 grantee organizations. After hearing from each presenter and asking clarifying questions, the members voted for their top two choices. The organizations receiving the most votes were Nourish Now, of Montgomery County, Maryland, and Food for Others of Fairfax County, Virginia.

The grant to Nourish Now was supplemented by anonymous gifts from two GT members, bringing its total award to $30,000. These funds will be used to improve the effectiveness of Nourish Now’s family food distribution program and to increase the number of low-income families served.

Food for Others received a $25,000 award to expand its program of nutritional weekend “Power Packs” for low-income elementary school students.

After awarding the two major grants, the members discussed how to distribute the remaining $8,000 in our grants fund. They ultimately voted to award the funds to one of the runners-up: Crossways Community Food Network. This grant will pay for equipment needed for Crossways’ new community kitchen, the first of its kind in the local area, which will help low-income entrepreneurs build their food businesses.

Congratulations to our 2016-17 grantees! GT members should take pride that, by pooling our resources over the past year, we are able to make a meaningful difference to the work of these outstanding organizations.