Ozark County seniors benefit from 1st COVID-19 grant

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Senior Age Area Agency on Aging is among the first agencies receiving a COVID-19 Response and Recovery grant from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.

Senior Age operates more than 40 facilities in central and southern Missouri, including the Ozark County Senior Center in Gainesville.

Senior Age received $25,000 to provide wellness checks and nutritional needs for senior citizens facing isolation or food insecurity in seven communities, including Gainesville.

The West Plains Daily Quill reports Alex Cobb, chief human resources officer for Senior Age, says the organization has been making home meal deliveries since senior centers have been shut down. Cobb says the grant funds will go towards covering the additional costs of packaging, freezing and delivering meals to seniors who normally would have visited the centers to eat.

Treva Warrick, care coordinator of the Gainesville Senior Center, says that facility would benefit directly from the grant, but the details on the amount and what the funds would be used for are not yet known.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks awarded nearly $100,000 to nine regional nonprofit agencies in the initial round of grants.

Grant applications are being accepted on a rolling basis, with announcements anticipated weekly for the near future. The application process is open to nonprofits and IRS-equivalent organizations like faith and civic agencies. The CFO does not make grants directly to individuals.

The grants are focused on agencies providing support to vulnerable citizens during this pandemic emergency across the CFO’s 58-county service region of central and southern Missouri.

Nonprofits dealing with food insecurity, childcare, transportation, and mental and physical wellbeing are among the agencies already supported by CFO, and an accelerated grant process targeting needs specific to the COVID-19 outbreak has begun.

About $3 million in requests related to the novel coronavirus have already been made, according to CFO officials.

On March 20, the CFO announced an initial $1 million commitment for COVID-19 response and recovery needs, supported by the agency’s grantmaking funds, the Missouri Foundation for Health and the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation managed by Commerce Trust. Since then, funders making commitments of $25,000 or more include White River Valley Electric Cooperative, Delta Dental and the Darr Family Foundation. The fund also has been supported by generous individual donors.

Donations can be made online at cfozarks.org/donate. Checks noted for the fund can be sent to: Community Foundation of the Ozarks, P.O. Box 8960, Springfield, MO, 65801; include “COVID-19 Fund” in the memo line.

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