Making an Impact: CAHEC at Work
July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023
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 $17 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.
Nutrition Assistance Spotlight
In partnership with the Interfaith Food Shuttle and Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC, the CAHEC Foundation sponsored three food box distributions in 2022. Collectively, the three distributions provided over 65,000 meals to nearly 800 households in need. 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 two of the distributions, households also received a gift card to a local grocery store to help them purchase additional groceries, medicines, toiletries, or other items.
One commonality at every event was the number of cars that lined up before the distribution began. Some cars arrived more than two hours ahead of time to ensure they were able to receive food items. “Seeing so many people arrive early gave us lots of mixed emotions,“ described Stefanie Lee, Community Relations Specialist for CAHEC. “On one hand, we’re thankful to be able to provide resources to people in need, but we also felt sad knowing there is such a high demand for food in these areas – it just motivates us to want to do more.“
We’d like to give a special thank you to our friends at Southern Bank, Truist, United Bank, and Partnership Property Management for their support! We’re honored to have partners that believe in going beyond housing to provide resources to our residents in need!
Disaster Relief Spotlight
On December 3, 2022, residents of Moore County, NC, experienced an attack on their utility substations, leaving them without power for up to five days. Pinehurst Senior Apartments, a 56-unit senior property, was among those impacted by the outage. As we can all certainly imagine, a lot of panic set in for our senior residents as each day went by with no electricity, water, or a way to save the food in their refrigerators.
During the outage, Excel Property Management, the management company for Pinehurst Senior Apartments, reached out to the CAHEC Foundation for assistance. Through the Foundation’s Disaster Relief Initiative, any CAHEC-sponsored property that is impacted by a disaster is eligible to apply for up to $10,000 in grant funding, which can be used to help provide resources to residents. Because of the severity of the situation, two investor partners – First Bank and First Citizens Bank – each matched the donation of the CAHEC Foundation, bringing the total donation to $9,000. We have so many wonderful partners that are dedicated to stepping in during a time when residents need it most!
“Your generosity helped residents in a time when no one could have expected it to happen,“ shared Ann Hanson, Principal of Excel Property Management. “We are most appreciative of the CAHEC Foundation and your willingness to assist with services for residents.“