United Way’s Disaster Relief Fund is being applied to local, broad-based actions to address COVID-19. Local donors can help drive that impact by supporting the fund and leveraging a matching gift challenge.

According to Alyssa Stewart, Vice President of Strategy & Impact, United Way is working with area nonprofit agencies and municipalities to determine what the needs are and how the Disaster Relief Fund can best support the work.

Access to food is one of the big concerns being assessed, Stewart said. With the closing of public schools statewide, many children from low-income families may lose access to quality meals they count on. Other needs, such as emergency child care and household effects due to lost wages—an especially worrisome risk for families in poverty or ALICE—are being looked at, too.

The Disaster Relief Fund was created last year to strengthen the community’s ability to respond quickly to critical needs. It has its roots in similar funds formed in partnership with the Kalamazoo Community Foundation after past crises, including the economic downturn in 2009, local mass shootings in 2016 and the Kalamazoo flood in 2018.

Last year, United Way utilized the Disaster Relief Fund to help underwrite the Community Resilience Program Manager role through Gryphon Place, along with partners Stryker, the City of Battle Creek, the City of Kalamazoo, Calhoun County and the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. That manager is now working with emergency response consortiums in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek to identify and address needs related to the outbreak.

Generous corporate donors provided seed money for the Disaster Relief Fund. If you wish to support the Disaster Relief Fund and strengthen the community’s response, click below. The Kalamazoo Community Foundation has also created a Community Urgent Relief Fund; you can learn more at their website.