Xylem Watermark grant aids DCSS Helping Hands program

ALBANY – Xylem Watermark, the corporate social responsibility program of global water technology company Xylem Inc., has provided a grant to the Dougherty County School System’s Helping Hands Ending Hunger (Helping Hands) program aimed at helping children in Albany who are experiencing food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One in four children in the area experienced food insecurity before the pandemic. Due to the pandemic, hunger in the area has grown exponentially. Families are in crisis. Helping Hands, and its local partners, Sunnyland Farms and Feeding the Valley Food Bank, will use the grant funding to deliver food to families of Dougherty County School System students who are enrolled in the Helping Hands program. With support from Xylem Watermark, Helping Hands will be able to provide boxes of 40-50 pounds of food monthly to more than 1,000 families, impacting approximately 5,000 individuals in Dougherty County starting this month and continuing during the 2020-2021 school year.

“This is really huge for our program,” Helping Hands Director Cathy Revell said Tuesday morning. “We normally give the students who have signed up for our program food that is served in the school cafeterias, but with this grant we will be able to distribute meat products, dry goods and other foods to the families.”

Revell said the Helping Hands program locally started with one school, but when schools re-open in the fall, it should be available in 19 county public schools, all but the three high schools.

“The Lord put it on my heart that this was something I was supposed to do,” she said. “It is completely spirit-led; all of the funding comes from individual and group donations, and all of the people who work with the program are volunteers. We are fortunate that Mr. (Dougherty Schools Superintendent Ken) Dyer saw the benefit of this program for children in the school system. he has been just awesome.”

The Helping Hands Ending Hunger program was launched in 2015, with a vision of alleviating childhood food insecurity, reducing food waste, promoting education equity, and ultimately shaping a better world. Helping Hands has developed a unique, student-led, food-safe model for repurposing unopened food items from school breakfasts and lunches, supplemented by additional, nutritious food donated and purchased from community partners for meals for families over the weekends and school breaks. Reviewed and recognized by state Department of Public Health and Department of Education, the program is expanding quickly in school districts around Georgia and will be piloting its first schools in Bowling Green, Ky., in the fall.

Working hard to accomplish its immediate goal of helping to feed 150,000 food insecure children over the next five years, Helping Hands is accepting applications for new school chapters and can be contacted at www.helpinghandsendinghunger.org.

“Xylem Watermark initiated a grant program to protect and serve people and communities in dire need at this time,” Jamie Saxe, senior director of the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts, said. “Our mission is to serve communities, and we are privileged to work with Helping Hands and local organizations to support children and families.”

“What an honor to have been chosen by Xylem Watermark for this emergency COVID-19 grant,” Carla Harward, the CEO of Helping Hands Ending Hunger, said about the grant. “With the support of our agency partner, Feeding the Valley, we will be able to get much-needed food to a lot of families affected by the shutdown in Dougherty County and help provide hope for the future. We are excited to work with our local industry partner Principle Environmental Inc., as well as Sunnyland Farms, for food distributions and extended recovery relief into the 2020-2021 school year.

“Adhering to our motto ‘Help, don’t judge,” we are excited to have the community come together to address the food insecurity issues that exist in south Georgia. No child should ever be hungry.”

Xylem is a leading global water technology company committed to solving critical water and infrastructure challenges with technological innovation. Our more than 16,000 diverse employees delivered revenue of $5.25 billion in 2019. The company is creating a more sustainable world by enabling our customers to optimize water and resource management and helping communities in more than 150 countries become water-secure. Learn more at www.xylem.com.

Xylem Watermark, the company’s corporate citizenship program, was initiated in 2008 with a focus on protecting and providing safe water resources around the world and also educating people on water-related issues. The global initiative, which encompasses employee and stakeholder engagement, provides access to clean drinking water and sanitation, and humanitarian emergency response to help communities become more water-secure and sustainable. The past four years, the program logged 170,000-plus employee volunteer hours and engaged 58 percent of the company’s global employee base.

For more information on the Watermark Partner Community Grants program, and to apply, visit: https://www.xylem.com/en-us/watermark/covid-19-response/watermark-pc-grants-program.

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