NACAS Announces 2020 Campus Care Grant Recipients

NACAS Foundation Announces 2020 Campus Care Grant Recipients

(November 30, 2020 | Charlottesville, VA) — The NACAS Foundation is pleased to announce that on November 11 at the C3X 2020 Virtual Conference & Expo, four institutions were selected to receive funds totaling $22,850 through the Campus Care Grant. The recipients are as follows:

Otterbein University
Promise House – $5,000

“We are honored to be part of a program to ensure that the basic needs of students are a priority,” said Melissa Gilbert, Associate Dean for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement at the Center for Community Engagement. “For our institution, this grant is providing a significant opportunity for us to be part of a national effort to raise awareness about the socioeconomic barriers to student success.”

University of Maryland, College Park
Campus Pantry – $5,000

“The pandemic has made remote access essential, and this grant would ensure access for our financially vulnerable students,” said Lydia Nicholson, Associate Director for the Office of Development and External Relations. “By coordinating these much-needed services and connecting food insecure students with service providers using the Pantry’s private meeting room and computer, we will be able to address multiple challenges facing food-insecure students. The research data that we will collect from students and Pantry clients will help us make data-driven decisions about future program development.”

University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Big Red Resilience & Well-being Program – $5,000

“Winning the Campus Care Grant means that we will have the necessary resources to implement additional innovative and fun ways to promote well-being coaching — an essential resource for Nebraska students, particularly during the pandemic,” said Connie Boehm, Director of Student Resilience. “The grant also supported and enhanced our connections with academic areas. Our college deans were amazingly responsive to support these efforts! It was wonderful to see how much support exists campus-wide.”

Hartford Community College
Food Pantry – $7,850

“At Harford Community College (HCC), we strive to make sure we do all that it takes for all students to achieve their goals. With the help of the NACAS Foundation Campus Care Grant, we are able to do just that,” said Laura Burke, Student Wellness Specialist. “We are grateful to NACAS for choosing HCC for this significant opportunity and are ready to put forth the work to create a more robust and accessible food pantry on our campus. By helping students with their basic needs during times of hardship, we are invested in reducing and eliminating the common barriers to their academic success.”

The Campus Care Grant awards up to $25,000 annually to programs or services that support student achievement by addressing a basic need of students on campus, such as housing, food, mobility, safety, academic resources, and counseling. This year, the Foundation received 176 applications for fundings. Grant criteria to receive funds is based on sustainability, replicability, budget, and metrics for success.

“The NACAS Foundation Board was pleased to have seen an increase in applications compared to 2019,” said Eddie Mills, NACAS Foundation President. “We are thrilled that the selected colleges and universities will be able to use the grant money to fund their campus food pantries and student wellness programs.”

As a response to the global pandemic, the Foundation encouraged more submissions that fell within the $2,000 – $5,000 range, anticipating that many institutions would have new funding needs associated with COVID-19.

“We know that one in three college students faces food insecurity, an issue that is only heightened by the coronavirus pandemic. We also know from our research that students rank access to basic needs as the number two barrier to their success,” said Kelsey Harmon Finn, NACAS CEO. “The Campus Care Grant expands the level of support campuses can provide to students through service delivery, bridging the gaps between what students have and what they need to thrive.”

About the NACAS Foundation: We are a non-profit, charitable 501(c)(3) corporation formed for the sole purpose of supporting and promoting the auxiliary services profession. The Foundation engages in scholarships, grants, promoting diversity of people and ideas, fostering innovation, collaboration, and creative thinking to improve the quality of life for students.