In January I wrote to you about the Foundation’s new strategic plan that established four primary areas of focus for our work through 2031 (at least).
In February I highlighted our ambitions to build a birth to 5 early learning system (focus area #1), in March I summarized the beginning of our work in career pathways (focus area #2), and in April why we must emphasize revitalizing our downtown (focus area #3).
Today I want to share our fourth focus area that supports all the others: basic needs.
You may be asking “what is a basic need?” I’m glad you asked!
This term is broad enough to be redefined from time to time. Currently, we are defining a basic need as grants made in areas that promote, for families, “food security, housing stability, clothing, and physical and mental health and wellness.”
If you are hungry, it’s hard to concentrate, work, do schoolwork, be a good friend, and the list goes on.
The same is true if your housing situation isn’t stable.
The same is true if your clothes don’t fit, impacting your confidence. Especially if you need appropriate clothes for a job interview.
If you aren’t physically well, or you’re having trouble battling anxious feelings, anger, or depression, it can be hard to perform in a job… or even get out of bed.
All of these scenarios are realities for some of our community members.
My neighbors.
Your neighbors.
Including basic needs in our work helps provide frontline nonprofit partners with the grant funding they need to serve our community with programs that support the building blocks of a healthy life.
As an example, you may recall what I wrote about late last year regarding sudden changes in federal funding commitments to SNAP, impacting families in our community, and across the country, who relied on the program to put food on their table.
Through our partnerships with the County of Summit we learned that 4,966 of our residents were relying on SNAP benefits for food each month, and that they received ~$194/month in support (as of October 31, 2025).
Running the math on that, $194 x 4,966 people = $963,404 PER MONTH in food support.
That is a lot of money each month, and our Foundation simply could not support that level of need. No foundation could, which is why tax dollars have historically done that.
With our ability to do this type of responsive grantmaking, and our understanding of how our food distribution locations operate, we were able to make a difference.
A food distribution location – such as Barberton Area Community Ministries (BACM), Salvation Army of Barberton, or Common Threads – will purchase food from a food bank, like Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank, to have food to give to those who need it.
The Foundation’s solution was to fund a grant to the food bank – a $50,000 grant at the end of the year – that the food bank was restricted to use only for food requests made by Barberton food distribution locations. This restriction ensured that our grant dollars benefit only Barberton residents.
The result was that when a food order was placed by a food distribution nonprofit, they were relieved to find out that the payment for their order was already made by the grant from our Foundation.
By funding the source, we were able to amplify and prolong the impact of our dollars.
We have four focus areas through 2031.
But they don’t exist in disconnected silos, they all build on each other.
A child can’t learn in a birth-to-five program if they are hungry. A student can’t focus on career pathways if their family’s housing is unstable. A young adult can’t build wealth in a career if they are battling untreated anxiety or depression.
Basic needs are a footing. They’re the prerequisite for everything else we do.
If you’re interested in learning more or helping, my door is always open!
In Community,
Josh Gordon
