ConAgra donates $10,000 to feed families affected by spouse abuse

Saturday, October 24, 2009
By GEOFF RANDS/Staff writer

From left, Amber Scott, executive director of Citizens Against Spouse Abuse, receives a $10,000 check from Larry Erickson, ConAgra Foods human resources manager, Friday, Oct. 23.
(Geoff Rands/Democrat-News)
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Citizens Against Spouse Abuse, a nonprofit Pettis County organization, received a $10,000 grant from ConAgra Foods Friday, Oct. 23, for use in the Family Meals Project.

These funds will be used to replace CASA's refrigerator and stove and purchase some small appliances and the sorts of foods that are not usually donated to the program.

"We're looking at a generation of families that have grown up eating prepared foods and fast foods, and so they don't know how to cook economically using foods that are available," said Amber Scott, executive director of CASA. "So, we're looking to introduce children to new foods, a variety of foods that are healthy, and teaching them to do some minor preparation."

"It's a pretty tight year with public funds, so we appreciate it," she said.

ConAgra disburses these funds through the Nourish Our Community program. CASA was one of 16 organizations nationwide that received funds this year, with awards totaling $221,300.

The recipients of this grant are nominated by ConAgra employees, said Sue Zacarias, senior human resources generalist. This is the third consecutive year that an organization nominated by employees of the Marshall plant has been selected to receive this grant, she added.

The organization must be able to "help and affect our ConAgra employees here at this facility," she said, meaning nominated organizations must be located in areas in which employees live.

"Marshall has seen and felt the effect of ConAgra here in Marshall," said Zacarias.

CASA was established in 1983 to "reduce the impact of domestic and sexual violence in families," said Scott. It provides shelter, therapy, and case management and helps in searches for jobs and housing. It does "anything it takes for someone to put their life back together when they're having to move forward from a crisis," she said.

The organization has room to house 40 individuals at any given time, and Scott estimated about 20 are used each night, or between 6,000 and 7,000 "bed-nights" annually. She added there was a spike in numbers of persons housed in 2006, nearly double the numbers of 2005, which has not yet subsided.

Contact Geoff Rands at marshallreporter@socket.net

Comments

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Nothing like grabbing a few positive headlines before they lean on the city to side with them on buying and tearing down the church on North St. And you watch...what ConAgra wants, ConAgra gets...at least in Marshall.

-- Posted by outsider on Mon, Oct 26, 2009, at 12:27 PM

What really needs to be cleaned up is the corruption in the taxpayer funded, domestic violence industry. As long as the taxpayer funded domestic violence industry follows radical feminist ideology, that says we live in a Patriarchal society that inherently oppresses and abuses women (and uses that insanity to establish policies and laws), it will remain the biggest hate movement America has ever seen.

-- Posted by Ray on Sun, Oct 25, 2009, at 2:26 AM

Thats nice,maybe they should clean up vulgarity in con agra

-- Posted by nancy007 on Fri, Oct 23, 2009, at 4:50 PM