Big honor

The Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico is among 1,000 second-round finalists chosen for the Yield Giving Open Call.

Yield Giving is an organization founded by MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of billionaire Jeffery Bezos. She uses her fortune from their divorce to give unyieldingly to non-profit organizations in the United States and its territories. According to their website, the organization has provided more than $14 billion to more than 1,600 non-profit organizations.

The Yield Giving Open Call is the organization's first open call for grant applications, launched on March 21. It aims to give to "Community-led, community-focused organizations whose explicit purpose is to advance the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means, and groups who have met with discrimination and other systemic obstacles," the website states.

Yield Giving chose the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico to go onto the second round of finalists last week, according to Dianna Sprague, the food bank's director and author of the grant application.

Sprague said 6,353 organizations applied, of which 1,000 were selected as second-round finalists. This fall, a panel of judges will assess the remaining 1,000 applications and choose 250 that will receive $1 million in the spring of 2024.

Kathryn Shafer, president of the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico board, said it's a tremendous honor just to be chosen for the second round, noting that the grant application process is competitive and Yield Giving chose them out of a pool of applicants from across the U.S.

"So it's a very big honor and it's a very big validation of our hard work and our commitment and a recognition of our hard work and our commitment," Shafer said.

Sprague said the criteria for being chosen for the grant includes reviews from peer evaluation panels, organizational capacity, and geographic diversity.

"And then, of course, the selection of the awardees is at the discretion of the donor, and the donor herself is MacKenzie Scott," Sprague said.

Sprague said if the food bank is awarded the grant, the organization can support itself and other like-minded organizations in eastern New Mexico through capacity building.

"(Capacity building is) giving (other organizations) the tools, the guidance, investing in leadership, so that we can strengthen those organizations," she said.

The Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico serves six counties: Curry, Roosevelt, DeBaca, Quay, Guadalupe, and Torrance.

Last month, the food bank provided 1,217 food boxes to families in Curry County alone and 8,178 food boxes in Curry County so far for the year.

Shafer said it would be life-changing for the organization if Yield Giving chose them as one of the 250 finalists.

"It will give us the ability to help some others in our community, some agencies with some resources that they are lacking, it will help us to continue to make maybe some physical improvements, meaning our buildings and that kind of stuff," Shafer said.

Shafer said the funds would also give the food bank the financial stability it needs to provide for the community, especially in light of the recent Walmart fire disaster. The money would also help expand the food bank's backpack program that helps children who are food insecure.

"We really are here for the people in our community who are food insecure. No one should ever have to worry about whether they have enough food to eat every day," Shafer said.

"The food bank has been here for 44 years. So we're not going anywhere and we are here to help those in our community who need help," Shafer said.