HCRS provides significant support to food shelves

SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – Health Care and Rehabilitation Services, southeastern Vermont’s nonprofit community mental health agency, announced that they provided over $8,000 in support to local food shelves this summer.

In response to learning that many of their clients were struggling with food insecurity and that the shelves of local food centers were running low as a result of the pandemic, the agency undertook a successful campaign to raise needed funding to support the food needs in southeastern Vermont.

According to George Karabakakis, Ph.D., HCRS CEO, “We wanted to do what we could to support our food shelves so that our clients, and other community members in need, have a place to go for food. In addition, we were hearing from many staff who wanted to help out.”

Through payroll deduction and other donations, HCRS staff generously donated over $4,000 toward this fundraising campaign.

HCRS was also contacted by one of their vendors, CDH Technology Solutions in Albany, N.Y., to see how they could support this effort. According to the Director of CDH, Frank Therrien, “We’re proud to support the hunger relief agencies that service HCRS clients and the local community and are grateful to our customers who made it possible.”

With the $1,000 donation from CDH, and a $3,000 match from HCRS, a total of over $8,000 was provided to these food shelves.

One hundred percent of these donations were provided to the following food shelves: Upper Valley Food Haven in White River Junction, the Family Center in Springfield, Groundworks Collaborative in Brattleboro, and Our Place Drop In Center in Bellows Falls.

Laura Gillespie, director of Development and Communications at Upper Valley Haven said, “The Haven was thrilled to receive the cash contribution from HCRS directed towards our Food Shelf. With increased rates of food insecurity in families across the region due to the pandemic and the economic dislocation which followed, we were able to use this gift to support the purchase of nutritious food to meet these emerging and pervasive needs.”

Karabakakis states, “I am so proud of our staff for stepping up to help our communities during this difficult time. We understand how challenging it is for some families to put food on the table during this pandemic, and we’re so pleased to be able to support this need.”

For more information about HCRS, visit www.hcrs.org.

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