Community grants help fund systemic changes
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in early March, the Taos Community Foundation saw a crisis in the making and opened an emergency action fund.
“I set a goal of $1 million to raise to meet the needs of our community, not even knowing what the needs were going to be at that time,” said Lisa O’Brian, director of the Taos Community Foundation.
She created a campaign — The Fund For Taos — and began bringing in donations from private and corporate donors. The first wave of funding went to meet immediate needs at Taos area food pantries and community shelters.
The fund was designed to provide money to nonprofits, not individuals. O’Brian said she wanted to see how organizations were pivoting in their work due to the pandemic and reward systemic changes that would have a lasting impact on the community.
Providing food security
“When COVID hit, we had to redirect our efforts. We started focusing our work on how to grow more food in the community,” said Kristina Ortez, executive director of the Taos Land Trust and newly elected state senator.
Ortez and her staff used the emergency grant money they received to expand a pilot program they created to get garden boxes into the community, and provide instruction on how to grow and harvest food.
Built with wood, filled with soil and outfitted with shade cloth and a drip irrigation system, the garden boxes were planted with seedlings for squash, beans, broccoli and tomatoes.
Ortez and Taos Land Trust staff began with 20 boxes, and when demand for them grew, expanded the program to 80. It was the kind of systemic change — an increase in community gardening — that O’Brian and the Taos Community Foundation had hoped for.
“It addressed the issues of food security, but also empowered
families to reconnect with this tradition, which is a Taos tradition, of growing your own food,” said Ortez.
Helping the helpers
The emergency action fund has donated more than $600,000 thus far, with plans to meet its stated goal of $1 million.
Organizations that seek the grant money need to apply on the Taos Community Foundation’s website. After a review by an advisory committee, recommendations for funding are made to the board of directors.
It’s a competitive process, focusing on six priority areas: food support, system support, shelter services, behavioral health, medi
cal support and arts and culture.
Contributors to the fund include private donations, foundation gifts and corporations. Taos Ski Valley was an early partner. Chevron pledged $40,000 by the end of the year.
“What’s really great about this is about $250,000 of that $600,000 is from individual contributions,” said O’Brian. “We’ve had guests come in that give us $10 a month.”
The Taos Community Foundation is one of four in New Mexico — the others are in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces. Each community foundation has some form of emergency fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the past, we’ve opened up emergency funds related to forest fires. This one happens to be different, because COVID — it’s just long,” said O’Brian. “But this is not unusual for a community foundation to have an emergency response to some sort of crisis in the region.”
Sheltering for safety
St. James Episcopal Church also received emergency grant money to support their food pantry. It launched an 18-week program to send 700 bags of groceries to Taos schools where local families were receiving breakfast and lunch.
“Taos Community Foundation, just almost immediately, were helpful in responding to the food need,” said Jill Cline, a youth minister at St. James Episcopal Church.
But in addition to fighting food insecurity, St. James applied for grant money to fund a housing voucher program for those in need of housing assistance.
The church has partnered with Hotel
Don Fernando de Taos and Sagebrush Inn & Suites in Taos to pay for hotel rooms for those in need.
“Within the first week of receiving the grant, we had three families that represented 11 people who were housed because of COVID-19 quarantine issues and needing to be safe,” said Cline.
She said it’s important that the community understand the ways in which the coronavirus spreads, and the support systems available to combat it.
“If it’s somebody who’s awaiting their test results, then they’ll stay until they get their results and they’re ready to go back home and not contaminate family members,” said Cline. “Or, if they get a positive, then we could continue to provide the hotel for them until they’re clear to go home, so that they wouldn’t contaminate other family members.”
To date, the Taos Community Foundation has awarded 80 grants, while still continuing their regular work of opening up charitable funds and talking to individuals about estate planning.
“I’m so grateful for the folks in our community that contributed to this grant,” said Ortez. “Their funding came at the right time for us, and was flexible enough that we were able to try something new. It’s turning out to be a program that has some real lasting impact. Especially at a time when everything is so uncertain.”
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‘What’s really great about this is about $250,000 of that $600,000 is from individual contributions.’
LISA O’BRIAN
Director of the Taos Community Foundation