CLEARFIELD — The Clearfield County Charitable Foundation Board of Directors, using donations and earnings from the CCCF Basic Needs Fund, approved awarding $20,000 to four food programs that assist families in communities across Clearfield County. The Basic Needs Fund was established by the Charitable Foundation to address specific vital community needs and has been used to provide periodic funding to community food programs.
The highlighted award is $5,000 to the Clearfield Area Backpack Program that was launched in November of 2024 as a collaborative effort between Mel Curtis from the YMCA of Centre County and Amy Lezzer from the Clearfield community to expand the successful program to students who attend Clearfield Elementary School.
Curtis and Lezzer made a presentation to the CCCF Board of Directors where they explained, “One of the most important aspects of the program is raising awareness about food insecurity among children here in our local community. Families can experience food insecurity suddenly due to sudden job loss, unexpected expensive home or car repairs or a sudden serious illness within the family.”
Lezzer said, “We are currently distributing 235 backpacks each week at the elementary school and each backpack typically contains breakfast, lunch and dinner items for two days along with two snack items. Our goal with current fundraising efforts is to expand the program to include middle and high school students. This funding from the Clearfield County Charitable Foundation is greatly appreciated and will help us reach our goal.”
Curtis added, “While the expanded efforts in the Clearfield School District are new, the YMCA of Centre County Anti-Hunger Program started the Backpack Program in 2014 with 33 backpacks distributed and has now grown to a community impact of 1,625 backpacks distributed every week across programs in several school districts.”
In addition to the Clearfield Area Backpack Program, $5,000 awards were also presented to the YMCA of Centre County specifically to fund food bank programs operated in Clearfield County, to Central Pennsylvania Community Action for their food banks operated in several Clearfield County communities and to CenClear for the Lightner Food Bank Program that operates in Coalport and Beccaria Township.
CCCF Chairman Jeb Soult stated, “The Clearfield County Charitable Foundation periodically awards funding from the Basic Needs Fund to assist local food programs and meet community needs. These 2025 awards are specifically aimed at addressing food insecurity among children along with support for some of the most rural communities in Clearfield County. The CCCF Board of Directors is encouraged by the efforts of the volunteers behind the Clearfield Area Backpack Program and we are pleased to provide the funding to help with their expansion of the program. We congratulate all four organizations receiving the funding and wish them great success with their efforts.”
The CenClear award was accepted by Mark Wendel, Chief Executive Officer and Mason Strouse, Family Community Partnership Director who said, “On behalf of CenClear Child Services, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to the Clearfield County Charitable Foundation for the generous donation to help the John Lightner Food Bank program serving the Coalport area.”
Donna Gill of Community Action accepted their award and said, “On behalf of Central Pennsylvania Community Action, I would like to thank Clearfield County Charitable Foundation for the generous donation to our organization for our food pantry programs. This donation will supplement our efforts to provide food and household items at the food pantries Community Action operates in Clearfield County.”
CCCF Executive Director Mark McCracken concluded, “We appreciate the donations we receive to the Basic Needs Fund and recognize the valuable services provided by the 4 organizations that are receiving the 2025 awards.”
Anyone interested in supporting the Basic Needs Fund can send donations made payable to Clearfield County Charitable Foundation, P.O. Box 1442, Clearfield, PA 16830 or visit www.clearfieldcharitablefoundation.org to do a secure online donation. Anyone with questions about the CCCF can email [email protected].
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