Nutritional Development Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia (NDS) recently received a $20,000 COVID Response and Recovery grant from the Connelly Foundation to boost hunger relief efforts and feed families in need throughout the five-county Philadelphia region.
The awarded funds are being used to provide nearly 2,000 frozen, four-person style casserole meals to families facing food insecurity and financial challenges stemming from the ongoing pandemic.
Approximately 670 of the casseroles have already been distributed to households throughout the area by way of NDS’ sponsored community food distributions. The casseroles were handed out alongside other nourishing food items benefitting children, individuals and families.
The remaining 1,330 meals are in the process of being delivered to NDS’ network of over 50 food cupboards and outreach programs throughout the five-county metropolitan area. To prepare the meals, NDS partnered with Philabundance Community Kitchen to create three varieties to be distributed to those in need.
Ms. Lizanne Hagedorn, executive director of NDS said, “Anticipated ongoing economic hardship during the winter months inspired the production and distribution of these healthy and hardy meals for individuals and families. They complement the distribution of children’s meals at schools and community locations. NDS is grateful to the Connelly Foundation for the opportunity to augment the food resources available to communities in need.”
NDS has been on the frontlines of the fight against hunger for nearly five decades. Since the pandemic began, NDS has provided non-stop critical support and assistance to thousands of individuals, seniors, families, and children across the region with food and food related resources.
For more information on upcoming community food distributions as well as locations of NDS sponsored food cupboards and meal sites for children and youth, please visit https://nutritionaldevelopmentservices.org/covid19/.
About the Connelly Foundation:
The Connelly Foundation was founded in 1955 by John and Josephine Connelly. John Connelly achieved remarkable business success as president of Connelly Containers and later Crown Cork and Seal, both manufacturing companies based in Philadelphia. He and his wife Josephine, strongly motivated by their Catholic faith and their love for the Philadelphia region, dedicated their good fortune to helping others. Over the past 65 years the Connelly Foundation has donated over $450 million to nonprofit organizations in the Philadelphia area focusing on education, human services, and the arts. The Connelly Foundation has always placed a particular emphasis on Catholic education, with thousands of Philadelphia-area students having attended Catholic high schools through the foundation’s Neumann Scholars and Josephine C. Connelly scholarship programs. For more information, please visit www.connellyfdn.org.
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Editor’s Note: For 47 years, Nutritional Development Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s (NDS) mission has been to serve children and those in need with healthy food. NDS accomplishes its mission in two distinct ways: by administering the federally-funded child nutrition programs and through the privately supported Community Food Program. For more information, please visit https://nutritionaldevelopmentservices.org/. NDS is an equal opportunity service provider.