Buckingham Foundation has a philanthropic focus on the communities in which Buckingham Companies has a presence and is taking additional steps to help those in need during the current COVID-19 crisis. We are pleased to share some of our Buckingham CARES actions and highlight the organizations we are assisting at this time. We encourage our supporters to consider ways to increase their involvement with our nonprofit and civic community.
Reallocating our March grant dollars from the currently closed Buckingham Food Pantry to Gleaners COVID-19 response. These grant dollars will support the current Gleaners food drive through family box distribution that Gleaners is hosting every week. Family meal boxes are being distributed this way, along with fresh produce. We are also providing an additional grant to Gleaners to support their efforts of packing and distributing more than 15,000 family boxes per week. Our support will help 475 families over the next few weeks.
We will allocate funds to the Buckingham Food Pantry when George Buck Elementary is able to open, to continue supporting the students, families and community.
The Alexander Hotel will become a satellite kitchen for Second Helpings and help prepare additional meals needed during this time. Second Helpings Satellite Kitchens are designed to temporarily expand Second Helpings’ capacity beyond the limits of its production facility during the COVID-19 crisis. Currently, Second Helpings staff and volunteers prepare and deliver approximately 4,500 meals a day. Satellite Kitchens leverage the unused capacity in the local hospitality industry to provide prepared eat-at-home meals for homebound low-income seniors and families who are struggling during the COVID-19 crisis. The Alexander Hotel and Buckingham teams are excited to help in this hands on way.
In addition to Buckingham Foundation support for Gleaners and Second Helpings, our team has delivered 800 rolls of toilet paper along with Kroger and Target gift cards to nonprofits in need, including Horizon House and Village of Merici. Both are current grantees and we are enhancing our existing support to help these vulnerable populations at this time. Our Foundation team is continuing to reach out to our grantees and partners to assess how we can help, and we encourage everyone to join us in this initiative to take steps to support our community.
4/10/2020 Update:
As an update on the Satellite Kitchen for Second Helpings – The Alexander culinary team is creating 1,000 meals for distribution this week! Our friends at the Irsay Family YMCA at CityWay are thrilled with the community meals we are providing twice a week. They are giving them to first responders and health care parents who come to pick up their children after a hard day at work. They report that the parents really appreciate the meals and stated it “made their day” to know we were thinking of them and providing dinner for their family. At one site they had a couple extra meals that they gave to a police officer picking up his child and he was going to take them on patrol with him to give to those in need on the street.
Taking our community commitment one step further, in partnership with The Alexander Hotel and The Aertson Hotel, Buckingham Foundation is funding complimentary hotel night stays for healthcare workers in Indianapolis and Nashville. In 24 hours, The Alexander Hotel received 120 nights of reservations under the Buckingham Foundation initiative.
We have also provided funding for the Gleaners Family Meal Boxes, which are distributed every week during a drive-thru process at Gleaners’ Community Cupboard and other large food pantries and community centers. These family meal boxes contain non-perishable items with the option to take home additional produce. Each box costs $20, which covers the cost of food, produce, and the cardboard box, and the Buckingham Foundation funding is supporting more than 500 families with these critically important food boxes.
