The Salvation Army Western Pennsylvania Division Receives $40,000 Grant from Bayer Fund
PITTSBURGH (January 16, 2024) – The Salvation Army has received a grant for $40,000 to support the organization’s Feeding Families for Life initiative in Allegheny Valley (Brackenridge), Greensburg and New Kensington, Pa. Feeding Families for Life aims to empower those we serve with the ability to make wholesome food choices. Among the initiative’s projects, Feeding Families for Life ensures fresh produce, lean proteins and other healthy meal options are readily available through The Salvation Army’s feeding programs. Where available, community gardens provide fresh produce for food pantry grocery distributions and the Love in a Backpack program provides school children with healthy food options over the weekends when school breakfast and lunch programs are not available.
“For individuals and families facing financial hardships, healthy food is often inaccessible and in these days, increasingly expensive,” Major Gregory Hartshorn, Divisional Commander, The Salvation Army of Western Pennsylvania said. “No one in our community should go without the nourishment they need to thrive in life. Thank you, Bayer Fund, for helping us ensure everyone has access to healthy food and a chance at a fulfilling future.”
In our mutual goal to see the communities we serve flourish, this grant from Bayer Fund will support our organization by allowing us to continue to reduce hunger in healthy ways. Last year The Salvation Army Western Pennsylvania Division received a $30,000 grant from Bayer Fund. Volunteers from Bayer’s local office helped build several garden beds at The Salvation Army New Kensington, which provided vegetables to the community throughout the year. With this support, funding for the Love in a Backpack weekend feeding program in Greensburg ensured children from two local school districts had healthy food options during times when they were out of school. Thanks to this support, The Salvation Army location in Brackenridge was also able to prepare healthy meal options for adults and youth on a weekly basis.
“Through Bayer Fund’s giving, we’re enabling and strengthening organizations that are working to make real, sustainable impacts in their local communities across the United States,” said Al Mitchell, President of Bayer Fund. “Programs like The Salvation Army’s Feeding Families for Life initiative help combat the critical issue of food insecurity, and we’re proud to play a role with helping even more people in our community have access to healthy, nutritious food.”
As a philanthropic arm of Bayer in the U.S., Bayer Fund pursues its mission of providing a vision of health for all and hunger for none by working with organizations and nonprofits, like ours, to deliver on those shared goals and overall strengthen our country’s agricultural communities.
In 2022, Bayer Fund awarded more than $13.4 million to over 2,700 charitable and nonprofit organizations to help address essential needs in Food and Nutrition, STEM Education and Health & Wellness. Since 2017, nonprofit organizations across the U.S. have received nearly $90 million. To learn more about The Salvation Army’s Feeding Families for Life Initiative, visit SAFeedingFamilies.org.
About Bayer Fund
Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer in the U.S., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the communities where Bayer customers and employees live and work by providing funding for food and nutrition, education, and health and wellness projects. For more Information visit https://www.fund.bayer.us/.
About The Salvation Army
Celebrating over 150 years of global service as both a church and a social service organization, The Salvation Army began in London, England in 1865. Today, it provides critical services in 134 countries worldwide. The 28-county Western Pennsylvania Division serves thousands of needy families through a wide variety of support services. To learn more about The Salvation Army in Western Pennsylvania, visit salvationarmywpa.org. The Salvation Army … doing the most good for the most people in the most need.