A news conference will be held on Wednesday, January 5 at 10 a.m. at the River Bend Foodbank, 309 12th Street, Moline, Illinois to announce a major funding gift from a local community foundation, the Moline Foundation and a statewide foundation, the Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation, Oak Brook, Illinois.
The gift is the result of a challenge grant campaign held in the Quad Cities the last few weeks and conducted by the Moline Foundation. Other community foundations around the state were challenged to raise funds in Springfield, Champaign, Chicago, St. Charles, Peoria, and East St. Louis. Over 1.5 million people in Illinois now live in poverty. Of this number, approximately 500,000 are children. This statewide funding initiative will be used to provide nutritious meals for Illinois children through after school programs, weekend back pack feeding programs, and mobile distribution programs.
As a Community Foundation, The Moline Foundation offers a range of charitable funds, allowing donors to advance a cause such as education or the environment, support an individual organization, provide flexible support for community needs or recommend individual grants. The Moline Foundation, founded in 1953, is a Community Foundation which provides funding to health, human services, education, community, workforce and economic development, the arts and other charitable organizations which benefit the citizens of Scott County, Iowa and Rock Island, Henry, Mercer, Warren, McDonough and Henderson counties in western Illinois. The Moline Foundation receives and administers charitable gifts; has a current endowment of approximately $15 million; and handles additional funds to benefit donor wishes. The Moline Foundation also serves as a catalyst and convener to bring about solutions to problems affecting quality of life in our region.
Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation is the only statewide private foundation focused on improving the health of all children in the State of Illinois. It was created in December 2002 through an action between the State of Illinois Attorney General's office and a private insurance carrier. This action established the Foundation which was funded with an investment of approximately $125 million.
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