ROCKY MOUNT, N.C., (August 3, 2023) – Today, the Golden LEAF Board of Directors awarded $1,158,333 to support five projects through the Open Grants Program, $3,150,518 in funding for 10 projects through the Flood Mitigation Program, and $2,778,721 in funding for 24 projects through the Food Distribution Assistance Program.
The N.C. General Assembly appropriated $10 million to Golden LEAF for the Food Distribution Assistance Program. This program is funded by federal State Fiscal Recovery Funds through the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Funds may be used for grants to nonprofit organizations to assist organizations in becoming eligible to be partner agencies of a North Carolina food bank or enhancing or expanding the capacity of current partner agencies of North Carolina food banks. Funds may also be used for grants to nonprofit organizations to assist organizations in establishing a school-based weekend food assistance program or enhancing or expanding the capacity of current school-based weekend food assistance programs.
“The Golden LEAF Board awarded its first round of Food Distribution Assistance Program funding to support 24 projects across the state,” said Golden LEAF President, Chief Executive Officer Scott T. Hamilton. “This funding will be used to address gaps in existing food assistance networks. We are proud that the State of North Carolina entrusted us to assist in this important work.”
The Golden LEAF Board awarded $2,778,721 to support 24 awards in the first round of Food Distribution Assistance Program funding. Golden LEAF anticipates awarding the remaining available funding at the December 2023 Golden LEAF Board meeting. Click here to view a spreadsheet of awards to organizations in Anson, Brunswick, Buncombe, Davidson, Durham, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Macon, McDowell, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Perquimans, Scotland, and Wake counties.
Scotland County's Restoring Hope Center, Inc. was awarded $56,000.00 to purchase a new storage unit and a new cargo van.
About Golden LEAF
The Golden LEAF Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1999 to receive a portion of North Carolina’s funding from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers. For more than 20 years, Golden LEAF has worked to increase economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural and tobacco-dependent communities through leadership in grantmaking, collaboration, innovation, and stewardship as an independent and perpetual foundation.
The Foundation has provided lasting impact to tobacco-dependent, economically distressed, and rural areas of the state by helping create 67,000 jobs, more than $720 million in new payrolls, and more than 95,000 workers trained or retrained for higher wages.
For more information about Golden LEAF and our programs, please visit our website at www.goldenleaf.org.
Restoring Hope Center, Inc., a non-profit organization located in Laurinburg, is on a
mission to help change the lives of those in our community and our surrounding communities. Every day there are people all around us who struggle with being able to meet their basic needs or to provide hot, nutritious meals for their families.
This is not a mission that they take lightly. The staff and volunteers at RHC are passionate about what they do. They genuinely care about the people they serve and are determined to do their part in changing the lives of others. But they know that they cannot accomplish their mission on their own. “What we do on a daily basis would not be possible without the dedication of our volunteers and without the support of generous donors in our community and our surrounding counties.”, states Executive Director Faye Coates. Ms. Coates went on to say, “The smallest box of cereal or a single dollar bill makes more of an impact on the lives of our clients than you can imagine and we are grateful for every donation we receive.
While most of our donations come from those that choose to remain anonymous, today we have the chance to publicly acknowledge three Walmart stores for their gifts to RHC. To the management team and the staff at the Lumberton Walmart, Pembroke Walmart, and Raeford Walmart, we want to say a great big THANK YOU! Your kindness will bless many people and will take RHC one step
closer to accomplishing our mission!
The color silver represents redemption.
This prayer was prayed over the tractor trailer:
I decree that wherever this truck goes, the land and the people will be redeemed! Furthermore, when the food is eaten, it will as if they have eaten from the table of Psalm 23 and they will "taste and see that the Lord is GOOD"!!
Thank You Father for giving us favor with this caring and wonderful couple.
