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Delta Dental Foundation grants funding to 23 Michigan organizations providing food assistance

5/4/20
Okemos, Michigan The Delta Dental Foundation announced the second round of recipients from its $500,000 COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund.

Funding was awarded to 23 Michigan organizations that provide food assistance. With unemployment at the highest rates since the Great Depression, food banks are overwhelmed by the rising demand for services. In some areas of the state, the need for food assistance has increased by 60 percent.

“Our food banks and food pantries are seeing much more need, while at the same time they have lost regular donations. To keep their clients and staff safe they are having to change how they distribute food which takes more staff time and packaging,” said Holli Seabury, executive director of the Delta Dental Foundation.  

Along with funding, grantees will receive toothbrushes and educational materials detailing the importance of oral health in preventing COVID-19 and other illnesses. They will also receive information on how to locate a dental clinic in the event of an emergency.

Michelle Lantz, CEO of the Greater Lansing Food Bank said she was thrilled to hear of the donations from the Delta Dental Foundation and Delta Dental employees who contributed to the food bank as the chosen charity for the month.

Employee donations totaled more than $2,000.

“These gifts will provide more than 30,000 meals to residents who are in desperate need of food during this pandemic,” Lantz said. “In the first month of the stay-at-home order we responded by planning an increased number of drive-through mobile food distributions and pop-up mobiles at current food pantries to distribute produce, dairy and frozen meats quickly to residents.”

The COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund will release a third and final round of funding to nonprofit agencies that have a health and wellness focus.

For a full list of grantees, visit deltadentalmi.com/COVID-19grantees.