In the past week, each team has come to a conclusion about who they would like to give our grant money to. I am on the Poverty Team, and we decided that we wanted to donate to Skillpoint Alliance so that they could purchase a training trailer for their technical skill courses. They can use this trailer to train those with minimal opportunity in professional skills and give them experience working with HVAC appliances. Skillpoint Alliance is a young and promising non-profit in Waco. They have been extremely successful in the short year they have opened. This program has already brought many individuals and families out of poverty by allowing them an opportunity to start a long term career. We believe they just need a little start up grant money to get rolling. They have potential down the road to be self sustaining because employers seeking out trained individuals have expressed interest in sponsoring individuals after the non-profit model proves that it works in Waco. The funding for this trailer will help Skillpoint Alliance instill more confidence in employers who are looking to hire their students and give their students more experience.
We also decided to give money to Take Heart Ministries, a ministry that distributes feminine products to homeless women, because two school districts have asked for their bags to distribute to young girls in need. In order to provide them Take Heart Ministries would have to double their output. We hope that we can help them establish this relationship with the school districts by funding their grant. This will help meet our goal of child poverty and potentially our goal of financial security because this helps young girls who are unable to obtain these products themselves. This inability to get feminine products could interfere with their ability to go to school because of their hygiene and ultimately their education. Education is essential to overcoming the poverty cycle. Our grant will help keep girls in schools and provide them a need that no one else is meeting.
We also would like to fund Pack of Hope. Pack of Hope is a non-profit devoted to feeding these needy, school-age children in the McLennan County area in who do not have a stable food source on the weekends by packing bags of food for them to take home. The school counselors identify the children who are in the most need and alert Pack of Hope. Once the money is raised to support the child, the counselor discreetly slips the pack into the child’s backpack on Friday afternoons. Pack of Hope provides these bags to 17 school districts and one charter school in the area. Volunteers assemble the bags on Wednesday mornings and give out packs to over 1200 children a week. Pack of Hope provides 165lbs of food to each child per year. Most of this is provided during the school year, but Pack of Hope also has a mobile distribution program during the summer to feed hungry children in the community. They have difficulty transporting all of this food and are in desperate need of a vehicle or trailer in order to help them with food distribution. Therefore we hope they will be among the charities the class funds collectively.
It was difficult to choose from our great we had trouble deciding who to give our class funding to. Some of the charities we are considering funding are CIS, Community Cancer Association, REACH, and Pack of Hope. Poverty team will continue to advocate for Pack of Hope because of the significance of the work they are doing in the community. We have decided as a class to wait and see what Aramark gives their funding to on Thursday and make our final decision based on that. Hopefully, we can find funding for all of the charities we feel passionate about.