The COVID-19 Community Response Fund is dispersing a fourth round of grants this week. The fund, hosted by the Athens Area Community Foundation in partnership with the United Way of Northeast Georgia, is focusing solely on the public school districts in the region.
“There are 14 public school districts that United Way and the Community Foundation serve, and our committee wanted to take a hard look at making sure that we supported those institutions and their needs, specific to how they return to school amidst the pandemic.”
That's according to Sarah McKinney, President and CEO of the AACF. The schools are receiving a total of $72,000 during this round of grants.
“And the schools are not, they don’t have the budgets for those," McKinney said. "You know the public schools are already lean, mean operating machines and anything we can do as a community to support the safe return of youth to schools, I think is advantageous for all.”
She says the funds are very much-needed at the facilities.
“The grants are not in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to any one institution and you would think in a school system that has million-dollar operating budgets plus, that a grant in the example of the amount of $5,000 maybe wouldn’t mean that much. They have been blown away.”
The fund is still actively accepting funds, to make a donation, visit www.athensareacf.org.
