L.A. schools, nonprofits get millions to help students overcome pandemic learning loss
by Suzanne Potter
California News Service
July 20, 2022 – Multiple studies have confirmed students across the country experienced significant learning loss during the pandemic.
Now in Los Angeles, 108 community organizations and local agencies are sharing $7.8 million in grant money to help kids catch up. The California Community Foundation just announced the grants, as the final installment of a three-year program.
Victor Domínguez, president and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, said the funds help support 45 summer camps across the region.
“We’ve been able to engage more than 20,000 kids and teens in safe, high-quality sports, arts, fitness, civic engagement, and STEM summer enrichment activities,” Dominguez outlined.
The rapid response grants will also help the mayor’s office, Los Angeles Unified School District and the County Office of Education forge partnerships with community-based organizations going forward. The initiative is expected to help 86,000 kids, ages 5 to 17, right away, and reach another 136,000 in after-school activities this fall with tutoring, STEM classes and mental health programs.
Valerie Cuevas, director of education for the California Community Foundation, which oversees the grants, said the goal is to help restore some of what was taken away by the pandemic.
“Our major effort was to make sure that youth maintain connection to learning, connection to school; find a way to maintain joy, connection to peers, despite the heaviness of everything that was happening around us,” Cuevas explained.
She added the summer learning initiative was made possible by huge donations from multiple charitable organizations, including $3.3 million from the Ballmer Group.
Oakland nonprofit fills community fridges to combat hunger
July 18, 2022 – Local nonprofits in the Bay Area are tackling hunger in low-income neighborhoods by stocking corner stores and “community fridges” around town with free healthy meals.
The HOPE Collaborative in Oakland has received a $5,500 grant to help with this effort, from the Health, Environment, Agriculture and Labor Food Alliance – known as HEAL.
Elizabeth Esparza – interim project director at HOPE Collaborative – said people think that hunger needs went down as the pandemic has eased, but that isn’t the case.
“There were a lot of increased supports in 2020,” said Esparza. “And a lot of those started to drop off before the end of 2020 when the pandemic was at its worst. And so, that need is still there.”
HOPE Collaborative has teamed up with nonprofits Cocina del Corazon and Third Eye Soul Kitchen to stock community fridges placed around town and launched the Community Food Distribution Project with their Healthy Corner Store partners in March.
Navina Khanna, executive director of the HEAL Food Alliance, said the group is awarding $52,000 in rapid-response grants to food justice organizations that work with communities of color.
“We were seeing that to go through a whole funding process is often very, very cumbersome,” said Khanna, “in terms of an application and reporting requirements, and things like that. And that, by creating a pool of funds and getting that out to our communities, our communities could do what they need to do.”
The grants are designed to be flexible and can be used for many things – including repairs to a broken fridge, transportation, food and more. They have benefited eight grassroots, BIPOC-led organizations across the country.
