Impact100 Essex Holds Mother’s Day Volunteer Event at MEND
Orange, NJ, May 17, 2021
Orange, NJ, - Members of Impact100 Essex spent Mother’s Day weekend packing food and necessities with MEND food pantries. Meeting Essential Needs with Dignity (MEND) is the recipient of Impact100 Essex’s 2019 $120,000 grant which they used to purchase a refrigerated cargo van (dubbed "The Sweet Pea") to streamline distribution. MEND was also able to partially fund the launch of their Fresh Food Hub in Orange, NJ to refrigerate, pack, and distribute fresh and healthy food to individuals and families in need.
The Mother’s Day volunteer event featured the collaborative effort to unpack, organize and store food for easy future distribution. Timed to highlight the impact of food insecurity on families, Impact100 Essex invited members to volunteer side-by-side with their children. “Spending time volunteering at MEND, with my 23-year-old daughter over Mother’s Day, was wonderful. Her interests include nonprofit work, so this was natural for us. She actually signed up to work before I did,” said Anne Zakin, member of Impact100 Essex, a women’s giving collective.
The Mother’s Day Volunteer Event also was a great opportunity for all members to gather, some for the first time since the pandemic. “We are thrilled to match our support for MEND’s infrastructure innovations with a socially distanced opportunity to join new and old members in live, hands-on work,” said Margo Greenfield, Co-Convener of Impact100 Essex. “It felt great to emerge from the winter, meet up with some women I’ve seen only on Zoom for a year, pack up a whole lot of food, and share that with my daughter,” added Anne Zakin.
Impact100 Essex’s mission to award transformative grants is something that MEND can fully attest to, “The local food pantries that we support expressed a need for fresh food. Securing the Impact100 Essex grant has enabled us to donate nearly 10 times more fresh food than the same time period in the previous year (258,000 total pounds of fresh food compare to 26,000 pounds)” said Robin Peacock, Executive Director of MEND. “The giving model of Impact100 Essex to provide grants for transformative local changes are so inspiring that I actually became a member myself!”
For information about membership, email membership@impact100essex.org. The organization is holding membership information sessions every Tuesday evening this month and can also arrange for a personalized session for any group of friends or colleagues before grant review season begins in June. Be sure to check out the organization’s website at www.impact100essex.org.
Nonprofits serving Essex County have until May 28 to apply for the 2021 Impact100 Essex $100,000 Impact Grant. Details can be found on Impact100 Essex’s website. Impact100 Essex also announced recently the additional funding of a $30,000 Equity Grant for a nonprofit that is led by an individual who identifies as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People Of Color). Details on the application process for the Equity Grant will be released later this year.
About Impact100 Essex:
Impact100 Essex is a giving collective founded and funded by women in Essex County. We bring women together to amplify and leverage the impact of members’ giving and to empower solutions for our community. Each year, Impact100 Essex awards a minimum of one $100,000 grant to support an innovative project managed by a local nonprofit organization addressing the needs of underserved communities. For more information about Impact100 Essex and to find out how you can join, go to: www.Impact100Essex.org or email membership@impact100essex.org.
For Media Inquiries, contact: Erika Munter, Email: erika.munter@gmail.com, Phone: 973.220.6694
