The CAHEC Foundation is on a mission to support a school food pantry this year, providing food items and/or hygiene products to students in need. Our goal is to raise $10,000 for this initiative!

Low-income families with children receiving free or reduced lunch at school, sometimes struggle with food security in the home. School food pantries provide families with fresh produce, non-perishable items, microwaveable meals, and sometimes meat, to help prepare students for the nights and weekends ahead. When there is a resource like this at school, students can discretely request items and pick them up when they're leaving for the day. We're requesting the help of our partners to make this a possibility for the 2023-2024 school year.

If you'd like to help us reach this goal, please contact Stefanie Lee at slee@cahec.com to make a donation.

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, and with the help of some of our amazing partners, 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 year, the CAHEC Foundation offered over 240 weeks of summer camp for our residents! One highlight of the summer was in partnership with the YMCA of Greater Louisville (Kentucky), where we were able to connect residents to an on-site soccer camp, along with other fun activities. "We targeted Partridge Pointe, a 276-unit family property that is close in proximity to the YMCA," explained Stefanie Lee, Community Relations Specialist for CAHEC. "This was such a unique opportunity for us because we've never been able to bring resources directly to the property before. Some days they had 20+ youth attending the soccer camp." Thank you to our partners at North State Bank, Taft-Mills Group, Greenway Residential, Mountain Housing Opportunities, First Bank, Willow Oak Run, and to Thomas & Amanda Boothby for their support in our Youth Leadership Initiative that spanned across five YMCA locations this summer!

In a different area of our footprint, 650 youth attending the YMCA of Greater Richmond (Virginia) each received 4 free books through a book fair initiative provided by the CAHEC Foundation. In total, 2,600 books were distributed to ensure students have access to age-appropriate reading materials during the summer. Thank you to YARDI, Port City, and Thomas & Amanda Boothby for supporting our book fair this year!