Children Rising receives $45,000 in grants from Safeway Foundation

OAKLAND, Calif. - Oct. 5, 2021 - PRLog -- Children Rising continues to provide food assistance to school children, promote social justice and educational equity, and is honored that the Safeway Foundation in Northern California remains a strong corporate partner. Children Rising announced today that it received a $15,000 grant from the Nourishing Neighbors Summer Meals program and a $30,000 grant made possible by the Racial and Social Justice Grant Program, continuing a 10-year partnership with Safeway.

The $45,000 funding from both grants will support children, youth, and families in Children Rising programs. The Nourishing Neighbors grant will provide 75 families who have children participating in the Succeeding by Reading and Path2Math programs with $200.00 Safeway gift cards to help provide nourishing meals. In addition to providing another source of addressing a family's food insecurity, the gift cards will encourage increased levels of parental engagement and partnership with their child's literacy and math tutor. Effectively building relationships of mutual respect between parents and the teacher/tutor is essential for parental engagement and accelerated learning. The Racial and Social Justice grant advances Children Rising programs that nurture and equip children to rise above the challenges created by generations of poverty, violence, and educational inequity.

"With so many eager children and youth in Oakland struggling in school, partnerships with great local companies like Safeway help the kids to rise to their God-given potential," said Jim Wambach, Executive Director of Children Rising. "We are grateful that the Safeway Foundation is partnering with us to feed the kids and help so many children and youth overcome the challenges they face in school."

Children Rising empowers struggling children to rise above the challenges they face due to scarcity of resources and extraordinary socio-economic circumstances. They do this by first raising awareness and rallying community support for the most vulnerable neighborhood children. The staff then trains and supports volunteers to teach and mentor young students so they may develop academic and life skills to reach their potential.

The Safeway Foundation's mission is "Dedicated to bettering the lives of people in our neighborhoods." Nourishing Neighbors summer meals grants help organizations that work to bridge the nutrition gap for students without access to school meal programs during the summer break. Racial and Social Justice grants are provided to organizations to encourage, empower, and engage social justice and racial equity initiatives in order to improve the well-being and security of communities of color.

"One of the goals of Nourishing Neighbors is to ensure that all our neighbors have enough food to eat," said Wendy Gutshall, Safeway Foundation. "We're glad to support Children Rising and help those who are facing food insecurity issues in our neighborhoods."

About Children Rising
Children Rising is an Oakland-based 501C(3) non-profit organization founded in 2001. The agency helps children attending public schools most affected by poverty, violence, and educational inequity by raising awareness and rallying community support for their needs; and by galvanizing and guiding volunteers to teach, mentor, and nourish the children so they may develop academic and life skills to realize their God-given potential. Children Rising offers an array of services to 36 under-resourced public schools in four program areas - CareerBridge, Health4Kids, Path2Math, and Succeeding by Reading. More information can be found at www.Children-Rising.org.

CONTACTS -

Children Rising:
Eric Steckel
Phone: 415-713-2220
Email: eric@children-rising.org

Safeway Foundation:
Wendy Gutshall
Email: wendy.gutshall@safeway.com