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Two $7,500 awards will help provide healthy snacks, meals to underserved youth

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (June 14, 2016) – Family & Children’s Place has received $15,000 in grants from the Yum! Brands Foundation – $7,500 apiece for the PAL Coalition and Family & School Services – that will help provide healthy meals and snacks to children and family members who otherwise would not have access to nutritious food.

The PAL Coalition is a community based collaborative working to reduce substance abuse and provide healthy living alternatives to young people living in the 7th Street corridor – the Park Hill, Algonquin and Old Louisville neighborhoods. Family & School Services (FSS) provides after-school activities for students at Meyzeek Middle School aimed at helping them improve grades and develop positive values and social skills.

“We are deeply thankful for these grants from the Yum! Brands Foundation,” said JT Henderson, vice president of Philanthropy for Family & Children’s Place. “Students in both these programs come from seriously underserved neighborhoods hit hard by poverty, underemployment and crime.”

At Meyzeek, 97 percent of enrolled students qualify for free or reduced lunches and 46 percent of families live at or below the poverty level. Additionally, the neighborhoods, which include Smoketown and Shelby Park, have higher crime, unemployment and high school dropout rates than the rest of Jefferson County.

“So, just as important as being able to provide tips, training and resources to help them emotionally and educationally is being able to provide snacks and meals at meetings and events. We know hunger affects concentration, which affects learning, so food is as critical a tool to learning as books or lessons.”

The Yum! Brands Foundation supports charitable organizations that are working to solve hunger locally and around the globe. It also supports organizations that are important to its associates and franchise partners through arts, education, social services and diversity. The latest grants continue a string of support by the foundation for Family & Children’s Place.

“With this committed funding for healthy snacks and meals, both FSS and PAL can focus on providing the best services possible, while knowing that all participants will leave every meeting having received a nutritious meal that otherwise may be out of their reach,” said Henderson.

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Family & Children’s Place works to protect Kentuckiana children, families and communities from abuse, neglect and exploitation and, through research-based, trauma-informed services, help them heal. The organization has supported families for more than 127 years and today serves approximately 5,000 children and families annually. For more information about Family and Children’s Place, visit www.famchildplace.org or call 502-893-3900.