Community Foundation COVID-19 Response Fund 

    While the infection rate may be decreasing, the financial distress caused by the COVID-19 virus remains high, especially among already vulnerable populations. It’s been eleven weeks since the Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan (CFOS) launched the Orange and Sullivan COVID-19 Response Fund, and both donations and grant requests continue to roll in. 

   Since its inception, the fund has generated overwhelming support from local individuals, corporations and foundations and raised $528,354. Grant requests are coming in daily, and CFOS continues to look to the public for donations to meet escalating needs in both counties. The fund has distributed grants totaling $396,676 to 74 local nonprofit organizations to address immediate and longer-term needs of residents in Orange and Sullivan counties hardest hit by the pandemic. 

  The Orange and Sullivan COVID-19 Response Fund distributes grants of up to $5,000 each to established nonprofit organizations that provide front-line services to the counties’ most vulnerable populations – food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, protective personal equipment for healthcare workers, online access to education for students, diapers and formula for babies, telehealth for the elderly and those with special needs and even supplies for animal shelters. 

   Donations at any level are currently being accepted. For more information visit  www.cfosny.org/covid-19-response-fund/. 

Bags of food instead of children now line the hallway at Round Hill Elementary School. Back in March, ‘Food for Kids’ packed bags for 150 children in the Washingtonville School District each week. Recently they packed 315 bags.