On Thursday, members of Johnstown City Council revealed the recipients of the American Rescue Plan Act funding.
On Friday, we took a closer look at the “food-based” grant recipients, which made up nearly $800,000 of the total funding, to see how that money will be used to better serve local children and their families.
The Cambria County Library is one of a few organizations in Johnstown that recently received a grant to help with their food assistance programs, and organizers say that it will greatly help their overall mission.
The Cambria County Library received a food insecurity grant for a quarter-of-a-million-dollars in ARPA funding.
"This is really important for us, because people think about the library only as being books. But for us, we're so much more."
Some of the money will go to providing actual food, but a majority of it will go towards programming and worker salaries to attract people to the library.
They will also create a sustainable food garden to help kids learn about growing their own food.
"Food is something that many of us are fortunate to take for granted, but we see every day that a lot of people in our neighborhood don't have that access. It's just not something that everyone is able to reach into their drawer and pull out a granola bar."
Saint Vincent de Paul “Food for Families” also received a $250,000 grant, and Goodwill received the same amount to construct a food pantry in Moxham.
The Greater Johnstown YMCA and Johnstown Christian Home also received smaller donations to help better feed the people of our community.
"We see every day the families that are really going to benefit from that, and the impact that our community is going to receive. So, we're so grateful for the city for being able to make this a reality and being able to help us empower our community to have this resource that they desperately need."