Brookline Rotary announced donations of $7,000 to the Brookline Food Pantry and $3,000 to the Brookline Safety Net Fund. The grants are to help the organizations respond to dramatically increased utilization caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased unemployment and economic stress has led to a six-fold increase in inquiries for assistance to the Brookline Safety Net. The Food Pantry is serving more than twice the number of people and has had to implement at new no-contact home delivery service for people sheltering at home.
Both the Food Pantry and Brookline Community Foundation, the parent to the Brookline Safety Net, are long-standing community partners for Brookline Rotary.
Brookline Rotary has been supporting and collaborating with local non-profits to address community needs since 1938 and chose these organizations at this time because they are well established, with low overhead and a strong track record of addressing concerns for food and family safety.
A portion of both donations was made as a matching gift, in the hope of encouraging other Brookline residents to also make contributions. We encourage others to help at http://www.brooklinefoodpantry.org/ and/or https://www.brooklinecommunity.org/safetynet.