Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation awards nearly $2.9 million in grants to 990 organizations in 2019

(Wellesley, MA) February 7, 2020 – Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation today announced that it awarded nearly $2.9 million in grants to 990 nonprofit organizations in 450 communities in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire in 2019. Since its inception in 1980, the Foundation has granted more than $155 million in funds throughout the four states.

The Foundation helps build healthy communities by investing in programs that provide low-income families with access to fresh, healthy food, and supports Harvard Pilgrim employees as they invest their time and talents across the region.

In 2019, nearly $1.26 million in grants was distributed to the Foundation’s Healthy Food Fund initiatives within the region, with funds supporting programs that grow, glean and distribute fresh food for families and communities across the region. (See below for a summary of the Foundation’s 2019 major grant recipients.)

Healthy Food Fund grants included:

• $585,480 in grants to 25 not-for-profit community food access initiatives in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. This was the first of three annual grants to these projects.
• $310,000 to support eight mobile farmers’ markets in Worcester, Lowell, and New Bedford, Mass., Hartford and Bridgeport, Conn., Lewiston/Auburn, Maine; and Manchester and the seacoast of New Hampshire.

The Foundation also awarded $150,526 in Healthy Aging grants in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. The funding to Elder Services of Merrimack Valley provided free evidence-based programs in fall prevention and caregiver support to help older adults in the region. More than 1,120 workshops/trainings were conducted throughout the region, reaching nearly 1,400 people.

In 2019, the Foundation also awarded $592,500 to 777 organizations in 282 communities through Harvard Pilgrim’s employee-directed Community Spirit 9/11 Mini-Grant program. This program enables each Harvard Pilgrim Health Care employee to annually award a $500 grant, completely funded by the Foundation, to the charity of his or her choice. Since the inception of this community grant program in 2002, the Foundation has contributed nearly $6.9 million to thousands of organizations in the region. Grant recipients have included schools, food pantries, youth development organizations, and fundraising events.

In addition, nearly $115,000 was spent for Service and Giving work throughout the region this past year. Of that, close to $61,000 was awarded to nonprofit partner organizations including City Year and the American Red Cross to support Harvard Pilgrim’s employee service in local communities and with disaster response. Harvard Pilgrim employee contributions—made through the company’s annual employee fund raising campaign and supplemented by Foundation support—totaled more than $67,000 and was distributed to United Ways of New England and other local nonprofits chosen by employees. The Foundation also contributed $3,000 for the LEAP gas explosion in Farmington, Maine.

Also in 2019, the Foundation awarded $1.5 million in corporate sponsorships to nonprofit organizations across the four states.

A summary of some of the Foundation’s 2019 major grant recipients is included below:
2019 Connecticut Grant Recipients: Total $260,043

• $60,000 – FEED Center (Bridgeport), Mobile Farmers’ Market
• $25,000 – Keney Park Sustainability Project (Hartford), Expanding the mobile teaching kitchen’s nutrition education programs and vegetable production at the Keney Park Urban Agriculture Education site
• $25,000 — New Haven Farms and New Haven Land Trust, Expanding community volunteer opportunities and the Growing Entrepreneurs program for New Haven high school-aged students
• $22,640 – Fairgate Farm (Stamford), Building volunteer participation, access and consumption of healthy, locally-grown organic produce
• $21,351 – Grow Windham (Windham), Creating a just food system in Willimantic and working with local farmers to glean excess produce for pantries in the community
• $20,000 — Hartford Food Systems, Mobile Farmers’ Market
• $15,000 – New Britain ROOTS (New Britain), Building a community engagement program as community gardens and youth-run urban farm 2019 Maine Grant Recipients: Total $694,500
• $500,000 – Maine Health (Portland), Physician training
• $25,000 – Alan Day Community Garden (Norway), Supporting the volunteer and youth leadership program staff to expand volunteer capacity to increase food production, donations, and distribution
• $25,000 – Cumberland County Food Security (Portland), Expanding the Cumberland County Gleaning Initiative by recruiting more farmers, volunteers and residents
• $25,000 – Healthy Acadia (Ellsworth), Enhancing volunteer support for gleaning program; harvesting produce on nearby farms and delivering produce to food pantries, meal programs, and other community organizations
• $25,000 – Penquis CAP (Bangor), Increasing fresh food access to low income Mainers in MidCoast and the Islands through gleaning and safe storage of seasonal crops
• $25,000 – Twin Villages Foodbank Farm (Damariscotta), Growing vegetables for food pantries and low-income food programs serving the coastal communities of Lincoln County, Maine
• $20,000 – St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center (Lewiston/Auburn) and Cultivating Community, Good Food Bus Mobile Farmers’ Market 2019 Massachusetts Grant Recipients: Total $1,011,811
• $150,526 – Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley (Lawrence), Savvy Caregiver and Matter of Balance trainings in Mass., NH. and Maine
• $104,000 — Boys & Girls Clubs (Boston), Farm-to-Family program
• $100,000 – Boston Children’s Hospital, vaping treatment/physician training project
• $60,000 –Coastal Food Shed (New Bedford), Mobile Farmers’ Market
• $40,000 — City Year (Boston), Service Activities at Trotter School and Extended Day programs
• $25,000 – Boston Area Gleaners (Waltham), Strengthening volunteer recruitment and support systems to harvest more surplus food for redistribution to food security organizations
• $25,000 – Community Harvest Project (North Grafton), Increasing fresh produce grown and distributed to food insecure partners, expanding the Volunteer Farming Program and educational programming
• $25,000 – Gardening the Community (Springfield), Strengthening youth and community volunteer programs, creating more opportunities for youth leadership development and engaging more people in growing healthy food for Springfield families
• $25,000 – Groundwork Lawrence, Increasing volunteerism at Costello Urban Farm to grow more produce, deepen fresh food impact, and broaden community engagement
• $25,000 – Grow Food Northampton, Enhancing capacity to grow and distribute quality vegetables to food pantry and meal site partners through increased volunteer engagement
• $25,000 –Madison Park Development Corps (Roxbury), Strengthening community garden/nutrition education efforts by building capacity among gardeners who are MPDC affordable housing residents and other volunteers
• $25,000 – Nourishing the North Shore (Newburyport, Amesbury, Salisbury, Rowley, Newbury, West Newbury), Expanding volunteer-driven healthy, local food distribution channel, the VEGOUT Mobile Market, which supports low and middle-income community members on the North Shore
• $25,000 – Urban Farming Institute (Boston), Growing, planting, and harvesting food with youth to distribute a portion to seniors and families in need
• $24,989 – Growing Places (Leominster), Expanding volunteer involvement and connecting underserved North Central Mass. communities with fresh, healthy produce
• $24,700 –Just Roots, Inc. (Greenfield), Grow and Glean program will increase distribution of local, healthy produce from farm to community
• $20,000 – Mill City Grows (Lowell), Mobile Farmers’ Market
• $20,000 — Regional Environmental Council (Worcester), Mobile Farmers’ Market
• $5,000 – Massachusetts Military Support Foundation (Barnstable), Support for Coast Guard families 2019 New Hampshire Grant Recipients: Total $313,511
• $60,000 – Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success ORIS (Manchester), Mobile Farmers’ Market
• $25,000 – Gather (Portsmouth), Increasing the amount of fresh healthy food provided to the Seacoast community by strengthening volunteer recruitment and management capacity
• $25,000 – New Hampshire Food Bank (Statewide), Increasing access to fresh foods through expansion of the Fresh Food Pantry, North Country Farmers’ Cooperative and Mobile Food Pantries
• $25,000 – Taproot (Lancaster), Increasing outreach efforts with farmers, backyard gardeners, and recipient organizations; purchase equipment to preserve fresh produce during the gleaning season
• $25,000 – Willing Hands Enterprises (Lebanon), Expanding volunteer-led gardening and gleaning programs and double the amount of locally-grown food delivered to food-insecure members of community
• $20,000 – Greater Nashua Food Council (Nashua), Expanding volunteer program for gleaning, community gardening, and fresh produce distribution in Greater Nashua
• $20,000 – Seacoast Eat Local (Dover), Mobile Farmers’ Market
• $10,000 — City Year (New Hampshire), Service Activities at Northwest Elementary School and Cullerot Park in Manchester
• $7,500 – NH Center for Nonprofits (Concord), Nonprofit Impact Awards

About The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation
Created in 1980, The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation supports Harvard Pilgrim’s mission to improve the quality and value of health care for the people and communities we serve. The Harvard Pilgrim Foundation provides the tools, training and leadership to help build healthy communities throughout Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. In 2019, the Harvard Pilgrim Foundation awarded nearly $2.9 million in grants to 990 nonprofit organizations in the region. Since its inception in 1980, the Foundation has awarded $155 million in funds and resources throughout the four states. For more information, please visit www.harvardpilgrim.org/foundation.