FOOD Share receives $50,000 grant from S. Mark Taper Foundation

VENTURA, Calif. - June 9, 2014 - PRLog -- The S. Mark Taper Foundation has granted Ventura County’s FOOD Share a $50,000 donation to help the regional food bank further its mission to eradicate hunger.

The grant will specifically go toward FOOD Share’s collaborative approach to help hunger insecure individuals and families achieve self-sufficiency through the food bank’s “shorten the line” initiatives.

FOOD Share consistently finds ways to meet the growing need of hunger insecure individuals in Ventura County. In five years, the regional food bank has gone from feeding 33,000 people per month to 74,500.

The S. Mark Taper Foundation is a private family foundation dedicated to enhancing the quality of people’s lives by supporting non-profit organizations and their work in communities.

“We’re honored to receive this generous donation from the S. Mark Taper Foundation which will fund our initiatives to alleviate hunger,” said Bonnie Weigel, president and CEO of FOOD Share. “Thank you to the foundation in believing in our mission and “shorten the line” framework for which we are extensively working to help bring families toward stability and self-sufficiency.”

About FOOD Share:

More than 35 years ago, eight citizens performed a good deed by distributing food to those who were in need underneath a Ventura bridge. The early philanthropic movement quickly formed into what is now Ventura County’s regional food bank, FOOD Share, which has grown from serving a few hundred hungry people per month to 74,500 people. Today, staff and volunteers distribute more than 10 million pounds of food annually from its distribution site; more than 160 partner agencies, which include neighborhood and church food distributions and soup kitchens; as well as hunger assistance programs. FOOD Share’s programs provide healthy nutrition and education to children, families and seniors, which include: KIDS Share, SENIOR Share, Nutrition Education, Community Market, SoCal Gas CARE Program, ART Share and more. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization, FOOD Share is a member of the Feeding America network, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization. For more information about FOOD Share, visit www.foodshare.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/FoodShareofVenturaCounty) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/FoodshareVC).