Daily Dispatch: As Local Nonprofits Take a Hit, the Pope Foundation Steps Up

The Daily Dispatch, based out of Henderson, N.C., yesterday reported on the Pope Foundation’s $35,000 in grants to food pantries in Vance County. The grants were part of a larger $185,000 given by the Pope Foundation in October to humanitarian charities.

 LifeLine Outreach Inc., a nonprofit based in Vance County that alleviates homelessness
and assists women and children in crisis. (Photo credit: Daily Dispatch)

The Dispatch reported:

Local non-profits and faith-based organizations took a hit when the federal government closed for 16 days.

The John William Pope Foundation made its yearly donations to Vance County charities a few months early this year to help offset the impact of the shutdown.

“We heard on the ground that the federal government shutdown was having an effect on these charities doing this humanitarian work and what we decided to do was to expedite our end of the year funding to cover the shortfall caused by the shutdown,” said David Riggs of the Pope Foundation.

The foundation is a private family foundation focused on humanitarian charities in Wake and Vance counties.

The foundation donated $5,000 to Area Christians Together in Service, $10,000 to Life Line Outreach Inc. and $20,000 to the United Way of Vance County.

Twanna Jones, executive director of ACTS, said her organization has not received a Pope Foundation grant in the past.

“They heard about the great work that we were doing in the Vance County community,” Jones said.

ACTS provides a daily soup kitchen on weekdays, a food pantry, backpack buddies, and Meals on Wheels for the disabled and elderly.

Jones has plans to expand her operation with a mobile feeding program that supplies meals to all areas of need.

She said the grant money would help with the expansion as well as day-to-day operations.

“My goal is to have a seven-day a week soup kitchen that feeds twice a day,” Jones said.

For the first time this year, ACTS will serve lunch on Thanksgiving Day from 10 a.m. to noon.

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