The New Britain Museum of American Art has received a grant of $50,000 from the A.W. Stanley Discretionary and Talcott Stanley Funds to support the museum’s outreach and education program.
The funding, the largest of $151,071 in grants awarded by the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain, will allow the museum to continue its ongoing efforts to bring in students and educators from surrounding communities.
The year’s first round of discretionary grants focused on non-profit programs, organizations and initiatives working in the fields of early childhood development, education and the arts.
Other recipients include:
• Queen Ann Nzinga Center, $20,580, to support the arts and performance group’s third year at Trinity on Main, which will allow for increased programming and capacity building;
• Good Causes Gifts, $15,000, for renovations associated with the program’s expansion into a newly purchased building in Berlin.
• Early Childhood Collaborative of Southington, $13,000, for advancing and improving early childhood development programming.
Established in 1941, the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain connects donors who care with causes that matter in Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington. Foodshare expanding
Foodshare, the food bank of Greater Hartford, has launched a $5.5 million campaign to expand its building, staff, and programs.
The campaign will support a 10-year plan based on two strategies: increasing the amount of food available for hungry people and decreasing the number of people needing that food.
Despite distributing enough food for 10 million meals last year, Foodshare is only able to meet about a third of the need. One of the solutions is mounting programs that will increase low-income people’s self-sufficiency.
The expansion of Foodshare’s Bloomfield headquarters is designed by AE Design Group of Southington and being built by PDS Engineering and Construction of Bloomfield. Work is well underway and is expected to be completed by midsummer. When finished, the building extension will allow space to triple the scope of volunteer projects, double the program staff, and greatly increase the organization’s food-handling efficacy.
Lead gifts for Foodshare’s campaign have already come in from Connecticut Light and Power, the Chase Family Foundations, and Stop & Shop.
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Hartford Stage gets $20,000
Hartford Stage is one of five regional theaters to share a $100,000 grant for new works as part of a Ford Foundation program honoring theaters celebrating their 50th anniversaries.
The $20,000 share of the grant will fund commissions, workshops and world premieres of new plays and musicals.
During its first 50 years, Hartford Stage brought Richard Thomas to its stage in the 1980’s, was an artistic home to such greats as Horton Foote in the 2000’s, and most recently commissioned and produced Quiara Alegria Hudes’ Water By the Spoonful, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for drama.
The grant was announced at the recent National Corporate Theatre Fund chairman’s awards gala.
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Grant to shift school diet
Norwich Public Schools has been awarded a $49,999 grant from the state to bring more locally grown produce to its district. The grant is part of an overall package of funding for the Connecticut Department of Agriculture’s Farm Transition Grant and Farm Viability Grant programs which works to promote locally grown products.
The Farm-to-School Program is a statewide program designed to encourage the use of Connecticut Grown fresh fruits and vegetables in your schools’ cafeteria meals and snacks. The promotion of local foods can be used to make kids more interested in learning and living a healthier lifestyle.
The grant will allow Norwich Public School Food Services to convert an underused school kitchen to a food processing kitchen, which will allow locally grown fresh produce to be processed and preserved for thousands of children in the Norwich school system.
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Walmart donations top $3 million
Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have donated gave $3,067,223.40, supporting Connecticut nonprofits like Bristol Boys & Girls Club and Connecticut Food Bank, the firm announced.
The donations are part of more than $1 billion in cash and in-kind contributions made last year.
In Connecticut, Walmart donated 665,861 pounds of food to local food banks — nearly 554,884 meals in the last fiscal year, contributing to the 351 meals contributed to local food banks across America. The retailer and its Foundation has partnered with Connecticut Food Bank in the state of Connecticut to provide funding for innovative programs to help end child hunger.
Among the major recipients nationally are Share Our Strength and the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
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Coldwell Banker employees donate
Employees of Coldwell Banker have donated $10,000 to the Salvation Army’s effort to help victims of Superstorm Sandy.
Mary Ellen Vicino, regional senior vice president of the residential real estate brokerage, presented the check from the CB Cares Foundation to Major Dave Champlin.