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SECU Foundation awards $800,000 to rural nonprofits

88.5 WFDD - Public Radio For The Piedmont | By Neal Charnoff
Published August 4, 2023 at 10:22 AM EDT
One SECU Foundation grant will help restore Ashe County's Historic Lansing School, with the goal of making it a center for Southern Appalachian traditions and crafts. Photo courtesy Lost Province Center for Cultural Arts.

One SECU Foundation grant will help restore Ashe County's Historic Lansing School, with the goal of making it a center for Southern Appalachian traditions and crafts. Photo courtesy Lost Province Center for Cultural Arts.

The SECU Foundation is distributing $800,000 in grants to rural nonprofits around the state. 

The grants are part of a foundation program that provides $40,000 awards to rural organizations, many in marginalized and underserved communities.

According to a news release, the funding targets nonprofits that focus on a wide spectrum of needs, including housing and shelter, youth services, food insecurity, mental health services, and arts education. The awards are designed to complement larger-scale grants provided by the SECU Foundation, which is chartered by the State Employees’ Credit Union’s board of directors.

Among the recipients is the Peacehaven Community Farm in Guilford County, a sustainable farm catering to special needs residents.

Another grant will benefit the North Wilkesboro-based Blue Ridge Opportunity Commission, which provides support to low-income residents in the Foothills and High Country.

And the SECU Foundation is awarding funding to Ashe County’s Lost Province Center for Cultural Arts, where the focus is on preserving the Historic Lansing School and cementing its status as a center for Southern Appalachian traditions.
Tags
Agriculture SECU FoundationBlue Ridge Opportunity CommissionPeacehaven Community Farm
Neal Charnoff
Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.
See stories by Neal Charnoff

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