Council introduces $10,500,000 special appropriation for the Montgomery County Food Security Fund

Montgomery County Maryland sent this bulletin at 06/16/2020 03:21 PM EDT

Council introduces $10,500,000 special appropriation for the Montgomery County Food Security Fund
Funding spearheaded by Councilmember Jawando would be will be administered through the Greater Washington Community Foundation

ROCKVILLE, Md., June 16, 2020— Today the Montgomery County Council introduced a special appropriation of $10,500,00 to address the food security challenges of County residents, while simultaneously supporting local food banks, restaurants and farmers through a public-private partnership with the Greater Washington Community Foundation. The full Council sponsored this special appropriation that was initiated by Councilmember Will Jawando.

This appropriation will provide up to $500,000 to the Greater Washington Community Foundation to initiate and administer the Montgomery County Food Security Fund, which will accept private donations that will support implementation of the food security response strategy. This appropriation also provides $10 million to implement the strategy with the goal of raising $5,000,000 in private donations.

Councilmember Jawando introduced the concept of a public fundraising program structured around incentives to draw greater participation from major donors while including smaller individual donors and expanding the base of overall participants supporting food security efforts. The County will enter into a public-private partnership with the Greater Washington Community Foundation to establish the Montgomery County Food Security Fund to support the implementation of the food security response strategy.

This effort will not compete with the fundraising efforts of local non-profits; it will instead be another way for funds to be secured and used to support food security. After discussions with the Office of Emergency Management, the County is able to accept and disburse funding via grants, however donations made to the Greater Washington Community Foundation have the advantage of being tax deductible.

The Council is tentatively scheduled to receive public testimony on the special appropriation on June 23 at 1:30 p.m.

The Council staff report can be viewed here.

You can watch Councilmember Jawando's comments on the $10,500,000 for Montgomery County Food Security Fund here.

 

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