Northshore Weather Relief Fund

When bad weather strikes, we are here and ready to accept and deploy donations to those who have been hit the hardest.

COVID-19 RESPONSE

Northshore COVID-19 Relief

PANDEMIC RESOURCES page is updated daily HERE

From practicing self care, SNAP Benefits, Food insecurity, Nonprofit and Small business resources, special needs social distancing … We have a COMPREHENSIVE list available.

NORTHSHORE EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND

Our region’s nonprofits are experiencing a surge in demand for critical services, especially those who serve the most vulnerable. The Northshore Emergency Relief Fund was activated to channel resources to those front-line organizations dealing with this national emergency and our neighbors who are most affected. DONATE HERE or to learn more about the grantees.

COVID Impact Report to download

TOTAL RELIEF GRANTS DISTRIBUTED TO DATE

All of the grants that have been made from the Foundation to address the emergent needs of our community due to the Coronavirus Pandemic have totaled nearly $450,000. A list of all grantees and the purpose of the grant can be seen HERE.

C2 - Corona Conversations - St. Tammany

Facing the economic realities of the pandemic that are affecting all aspects of our Parish is no small task. Thanks to a partnership with St. Tammany Corporation, the St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce and the Northshore Community Foundation, these virtual conversations were held weekly and aimed to: Identify the unique challenges facing all sectors of our economy, catalyze a collective effort in pursuit of our shared, complex goals, and find action steps to minimize negative outcomes for us and our neighbors.

Information is power and, in some cases, comforting, as those who tuned in to our Corona Conversation (C2) sessions know. Zoom recordings offer an ongoing opportunity for you to listen and learn about local impacts on the St. Tammany Chamber YouTube channel. Click below for each conversation.

• Session One: Public Budget Challenges

• Session Two: Healthcare

• Session Three: Education/Workforce

• Session Four: Retail/Office

• Session Five: Hospitality/Quality of Life

• Session Six: Community Needs

NONPROFIT SUPPORT/PPE BOXES
We are transitioning from reacting to the pandemic and providing emergency relief to one of supporting our nonprofits who are starting to open their doors again. Many have not stopped working, albeit remotely, but are now welcoming clients and their constituents back into their working spaces. Thanks to a generous donation from Medline Industries, we were able to deliver 40 boxes of PPE supplies to those nonprofits who responded to us with a need. The response to this effort has been overwhelming and we are so grateful to have been able to help these organizations stay safe while doing all of their good works. Te see more about the effort and TONS of photos from all over the region, click HERE.

“We were so unsure of how we were going to pay all of the new and unexpected expenses like go-boxes, gloves and masks … But the funds the Foundation sent helped us have the confidence to move forward!”

—Heather Poole, Grants Coordinator/Administrative Assistant, Our Daily Bread

WORKING TOGETHER

Staying in constant contact with our Nonprofit Partners has helped all of us to leverage assets and cooperate on multiple fronts to maintain the health and wellness of our vital organizations.

To that end, the Foundation is conducting an in-depth survey on the well being of our Northshore nonprofits called VITALS.

All of the grants that have been made from the Foundation to address the emergent needs of our community due to the Coronavirus Pandemic have totaled nearly $450,000. A list of all grantees and the purpose of the grant can be seen HERE.

A huge THANK YOU to all of the amazing donors for trusting us with knowing the most important needs in our communities

HURRICANE LAURA RESPONSE

Our staff, along with the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, has been assessing Hurricane Laura damage in Southwest Louisiana. What we learn will help our affiliate, Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana, make grants to speed up recovery.

$8 million

The Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana, a sister organization of ours, has seen donations of more than $8 million. Based in Lake Charles, Foundation SWLA has granted out millions from its relief and recovery fund to organizations that were the first to feed people displaced by the storm. There is so much work to still be done and the funds are flowing out as fast as they can.

Thanking: Walmart Foundation $1 million | Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana $1 million | Cheniere Energy $500,000 | UnitedHealth Group $500,000 | Verizon Foundation $500,000 | New Orleans Saints $166,000 | Elon Musk $100,000 | Sempra Energy Foundation $100,000 | Sasol $100,000 | BP America/BP Foundation $100,000 | Target $75,000 | Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation $50,000 | Altice Insurance $50,000 | Cablevision System $50,000 | Chevron $50,000 | Enbridge $50,000 | Brown Foundation $47,500 | Shell $40,000 | AT&T $30,000 | DTE Foundation $30,000.

Stories from Laura

George Romero pulled the ropes as tight as he could, until there was no slack left between his shrimp boat and the dock. Hurricane Laura was coming with winds gusting over 150 miles per hour. He beat the storm this time, his boat wasn’t toppled by the winds, which were around 70 miles per hour when the storm passed Delcambre. The small fishing town was mostly spared, as were Erath and Abbeville. Laura went west, thrashing Lake Charles and towns north of it.
 
On Wednesday, Romero was scooping shrimp at $3 per pound for customers he knew by name- Dorsey, Jason, Tucker. They traded stories about the storm and hurricanes Rita and Ike, and how they cook shrimp and okra gumbo. It’s okay to add a few tomatoes when cooking with okra, said Tucker Broussard, a welder who lives down the road in Abbeville. “And add a little vinegar too; it cuts the slime.”

On Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, volunteers from First United Methodist Church in Baton Rouge appeared in the parking lot of their counterpart, First United Methodist Church of Lake Charles, to serve jambalaya to weary residents and workers repairing towers and power lines. “Right after the storm hit, we knew we were going to organize,” says volunteer Caroline Tyler. “A lot of members went out and bought food – one got 2,000 granola bars – and we brought everything over. We figured this was a good place to set up.”

FUMC member and jambalaya cook Robin Hudson stayed with the team’s supplies overnight, bunking down in the powerless church. The group served about 400 meals over two days and planned to continue to send teams with prepared hot meals once a week.

Helen LeCompte, 85, waits in her car in the parking lot of St. Henry Catholic Church as volunteers prepare to distribute meals. She lives less than a mile from the church in a working class neighborhood with her disabled daughter, Cheryl, 62.

Like most in Lake Charles, the women have no power or water. But they also don’t have a generator, an ice chest to keep staples cold or a cell phone. Priests from St. Henry have made house calls to bring food and water and to pray with them. And Helen, who only recently retired from her job as a school janitor, persistently sets out in her car to fetch daily supplies or to find meals.

She’s done her best to clean out her deep freeze, but a putrid smell pervades her home. The two have no family in Louisiana and weren’t able to evacuate to out-of-state relatives before the storm. Helen says she went to bed the night Hurricane Laura made landfall wondering if they’d drown in their sleep. She finds blessings in the absence of flooding and that her home sustained minor damage, but she’s concerned by their isolation and lack of basic services, especially since she is Cheryl’s sole caregiver.