New River Community Action (1093 E. Main St., Radford) has received a $5,000 grant from Bank of America to purchase food for its food pantries. The donation will be used to supplement support from local faith-based organizations, United Way, and other private sources.
“Bank of America funds will help us meet requests for food and keep our food pantries stocked during times when donations are low. We are very grateful for this generous gift,” stated Terry Smusz, NRCA CEO.
Over eighteen percent of the New River Valley population lived in poverty in 2016, according to Ann Angert, NRCA Planning Specialist, meaning that many residents in poverty lack sufficient funds to meet their basic needs, sometimes needing to choose between buying food for their children or paying for utilities, rent, and medicine.
NRCA’s emergency assistance and food pantry programs provide temporary assistance to low-income families experiencing financial crises. These services address a variety of needs including food, rent, utilities, prescriptions, and gasoline to travel to doctors’ appointments.
New River Community Action assisted 1,902 families with emergency food through six food pantries during the 2016-2017 program year.
NRCA offers additional programs that help strengthen families and promote economic stability including: Children’s Health Improvement Partnership home visiting, Head Start, homelessness prevention, rapid re-housing, housing counseling, renter education, VA CARES re-entry program, SwiftStart career development, Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, and the To Our House partnership with local churches providing winter shelter for homeless men.
NRCA is a private, non-profit organization serving the counties of Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Radford City. More information and tax-deductible donation opportunities are available at www.newrivercommunityaction.org.
