CAHEC Foundation is a nonprofit affiliate of CAHEC that improves the quality of life for youth and young adults through wellness and education. Our focus of offering these life-changing initiatives began with CAHEC’s Community Investments, where over $16 million has been invested towards assisting residents and their communities – more than $7.8 million of which has been dedicated to wellness and education alone. By continuing to offer these initiatives, CAHEC Foundation creates opportunities that go beyond affordable housing to help low-income residents obtain the critical resources they need to succeed.
Wellness Spotlight
In partnership with the Interfaith Food Shuttle, the CAHEC Foundation sponsored two Mobile Food Markets that served 509 households in Nash County. Families were able to drive through in their cars to receive a bag of fresh produce, meat, breads, and a box of non-perishable items. At one distribution, the first 150 families that came through the line also received a hot meal, catered by the Spinning Plate Food Truck.
While the food distribution did not start until 10:00 each morning, cars began lining up at 8:30 to receive food items. Between the two events, 32,000 pounds of food was distributed to residents in need. What an incredible community effort!
We’d like to give a special thank you to our friends at United Bank, Truist, Beal Street Square, and Partnership Property Management for helping make this event such a huge success. We couldn’t have done this without your support!
We would also like to thank the volunteer efforts of the Interfaith Food Shuttle, the REACH Center, and Ripple Effects. Your passion for making events like this possible throughout the year goes a long way in supporting residents and communities throughout North Carolina.
Education Spotlight
Over the past few years, the CAHEC Foundation has increased its efforts to send youth living at CAHEC-sponsored properties to summer camp. On average, summer camps can cost up to $185 per week, which is sometimes hard for our families to afford. Through our Youth Leadership Initiative, we’re able to offer these summer camp experiences to CAHEC families for $10 per week. While at camp, and depending on the camp location, students take part in various sporting activities, learn to swim, take educational field trips, and receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch each day.
This summer, the CAHEC Foundation sponsored over 235 weeks of camp for our residents! Some youth were able to attend for up to seven weeks of camp, others for one or two weeks, but they all came out with the same end result: experiencing something new and doing something fun and educational during their summer break.
Kristen Aquino, Vice President of Financial Development for the YMCA of Western North Carolina, explained that the campers have been having a blast. “One of my favorite weeks was when everyone was a dinosaur explorer. We had life-sized animatronic dinosaurs invade our camp and we also had a dinosaur “foam-roam” party.” Sounds like a great time to us!
We can’t voice our appreciation enough for the creativity each of the YMCA camps have, and for allowing us to send CAHEC youth to experience these wonderful opportunities. We’d also like to thank our partners for their donations this year, which ultimately allow us to sponsor more weeks of camp at each location. Thank you to Thomas and Amanda Boothby, First Bank, Fitch Irick Corporation, Mountain Housing Opportunities, North State Bank, Pacific Western Bank, and Taft-Mills Group for your generosity!