ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A microgrant from city lawmakers is set to help an Allentown nonprofit deliver hot holiday meals to hundreds of people this Thanksgiving.
Allentown Young Professionals landed a $2,000 grant from City Council’s inaugural Civic Fund program. It plans to use that money to help fund its ninth Turkey Drive.
In the annual event’s first year, the nonprofit provided enough groceries for six families to make a Thanksgiving meal, according to Louis Holzman, a founding member of AYP.
That process soon evolved as “we quickly realized, for some of the families that we're giving this to, they may not even have the means necessary to cook a meal in a kitchen,” Holzman said.
Last year, the nonprofit handed out 56 Thanksgiving meal boxes from Cracker Barrel, packed with turkey, cornbread dressing, cranberry relish, sweet potato casserole, green beans and other fixings.
“It takes a village, and we're confident (in) the village that we have behind us here to help pull this forward."
– Louis Holzman, Allentown Young Professionals
Those 56 cooked meals likely fed 10 times that many people, with plenty for leftovers, Holzman said.
Most people the AYP helps through its Turkey Drive have “hardships in life that they’re working through,” he said.
“Even if it's just for that hour or those two hours or that evening that they're sitting around with with their loved ones and getting to enjoy those hot-and-ready meals, hopefully that was just one thing that they didn't have to worry about and that made (things) a little bit easier,” Holzman said.
Allentown Young Professionals raised about $8,000 last year to purchase 56 boxes. This fall, in its 10th year as a nonprofit, the group is working to raise a similar amount to add to the microgrant.
Council's funding will go a long way toward topping last year’s box total, as it’s essentially erasing the cost of inflation over the past year for the nonprofit.
“Life always gets more expensive,” Holzman said. “The meals have gotten more expensive.”
Holzman expects AYP can buy about 60 meals if it raises $10,000. With 20% of that already secured through council’s grant, “that gives us a good jumping-off point,” Holzman said.
And he has no doubt the community will support its “core initiative” again this year.
“It takes a village, and we're confident (in) the village that we have behind us here to help pull this forward," he said.
AYP with support from other nonprofits hosted monthly events for several years before the pandemic forced it to change tack.
“We're right where we need to be, but the grant from the city is a really appreciated and welcomed backstop."
– Louis Holzman, Allentown Young Professionals
Members now support the Community Services for Children Holiday Drive and provide a $1,000 scholarship for an Allentown resident attending Lehigh Carbon Community College while pouring most of their efforts into the Turkey Drive.
“Food insecurity is real,” Holzman said, noting it’s long been “front and center” for members who grew up in the city and saw many friends rely on school-provided meals.
The Lehigh Valley has a food insecurity rate of about 14%. That means more than 100,000 people across the region struggle to access and afford adequate, safe and nutritious food. And about 20% of children are food insecure, according to Second Harvest Food Bank of Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania.
The Turkey Drive was “a really important initiative for us to continue to do,” Holzman said.
Nonprofit members are in the midst of a “six-week push” to advertise and fundraise; every year so far, they’ve been able “to go from from zero to $8,000 or zero to $10,000” in that short window before Thanksgiving, Holzman said.
“We're right where we need to be, but the grant from the city is a really appreciated and welcomed backstop,” he said.
The Union & Finch bistro in Allentown is set to host AYP’s annual “Dine and Donate” fundraiser from 5-9 p.m. Nov. 4. The business will donate a portion of sales to the Allentown Young Professionals’ initiative.
The organization was among a dozen that got $2,000 grants from council’s Civic Fund program. Almost 50 groups sought funding during the program’s inaugural round.
Grants are also set to fund Blank Slate’s community garden and meal program; Somos CDC’s multilingual outreach efforts and town halls; and the Neighborhood Center’s work with kids in the Jordan Heights neighborhood.
Civic Fund money will also support a youth theater program, afterschool programming for Mosser Elementary students, and a career readiness initiative for high schoolers.
City Council President Santo Napoli said the grants are meant to amplify “organizations and residents who are working every day to make our neighborhoods stronger.”