Ford Fund Detroit-Area COVID-19 Relief Efforts Underway
Ford Motor Company is lending its manufacturing and strategic expertise to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s also working to give back in different ways on the home front. The automaker and its philanthropic offshoot, Ford Fund, are pitching in across the Detroit-area in a variety of ways to help bolster COVID-19 relief efforts.
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In one of the first endeavors, Ford Fund donated $500,000 to five nonprofit organizations from around the Detroit area: Gleaners, Focus Hope, Cass Community Social Services, Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, and United Way of Southeastern Michigan. Ford also repurposed its two Detroit-area Resource and Engagement Centers for food distribution, ensuring that individuals and families across the region had to means to feed themselves.
Ford Fund is also partnering with employees and Ford Land to put 20 shuttle vans into service for food delivery, and it’s leveraging six Lincoln Navigator SUVs that are part of the Lincoln Personal Driver program to deliver food and other essential supplies around Detroit.
“At Ford Fund, we are looking at how we can help address some of the most basic needs that come out of a situation like this,” said Mary Culler, president, Ford Motor Company Fund. “Issues surrounding hunger relief, shelter and access to mobility are pressing needs in local communities — and that’s what we are currently working with our philanthropic partners to address right now.”
Ford Fund expands efforts across the nation
Though its efforts in Ford’s home base of Detroit are a primary focus, Ford Fund is also offering help in other states. This includes partnerships with the United Negro College Fund and League of United Latin American Citizens, both aimed at helping students with everything from hunger to transportation to mental health services.
Partnerships across the United States include teaming with the local Boys & Girls Clubs in California to deliver food and learning kits to families and students, co-developing a distribution plan with the Chicago Food Depository, and working with teachers and educations in Florida to ensure that students remain engaged as they adapt to learning from home.
In all, Ford has allocated around $1.6 million to special programs and efforts aimed at helping people during the pandemic.
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Kyle S. Johnson lives in Cincinnati, a city known by many as “the Cincinnati of Southwest Ohio.” He enjoys professional wrestling, Halloween, and also other things. He has been writing for a while, and he plans to continue to write well into the future. See more articles by Kyle.