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Jazzy’s Place - Grants
”Bring me your hungry, your poorly nourished, your vulnerable dogs,
seeking to be protected, fed, loved, and to love.
These devoted, affectionate souls in this harsh unforgiving world.
Send them, the unfed, the helpless, the less fortunate, to me”.
Inspired by the Emma Lazarus sonnet on the Statue of Liberty.
[5]For example, the CBF has supported The Colorado Pet Pantry who partners with local food banks and pantries, churches, and other nonprofit groups. All have already been vetted, and have had their clients vetted, which further significantly reduces administrative costs.
[6]The Ronnie Hornigbaum Fund provides grants to municipalities that provide greatly discounted rates for spaying and neutering the exploding population of feral cats. Municipalities can apply by contacting the Ronnie Hornigbaum – Caplan Bensley Foundation at the Orange and Sullivan County Foundation.Type your paragraph here.
Food bank participants must be a member of the Feeding America program; or a food distribution organization that provides a fully and rigorously vetted process throughout their entire hierarchical chain.
The Jazzy’s Place grant program is available to all Food Banks that have an existing organizational product sourcing structure in place for soliciting donated dog food and that does not have an existing financial sponsor or benefactor providing for dog food.
These grants will be distributed directly to each participating Food Bank on a continuing annual basis. Funds are to be used by the food banks and qualified food pantries solely to offset the approved shared-maintenance costs for households with dogs. It is not to be applied towards the purchase of dog or human food, but only to donated food obtained through the food bank’s own product sourcing efforts.
The grant must be used for dog food, not cat food. The CBF is concerned that providing similar grants for cat food would invite participants that would feed feral cats. This is a major problem in many areas, as it brings more feral cats into that locality and potentially raises serious local conflicts. The CBF seeks to avoid this sensitive issue and instead can refer inquiries to a separate CBF sponsored grant program that helps solve the feral cat problem facing many communities.[6]
The Caplan-Bensley Foundation's (CBF) overall goal is to provide individuals and families in need, along with their canine companions, a safe, comfortable, secure and well-nourished life.
The Jazzy’s Place initiative was established in 2013 to help families in need nourish their beloved pet dogs at home and keeping them out of a shelter.
Both owners and their lifelong pet-dogs can now live comfortably together thereby fulfilling the CBF strategic objective of “Saving both ends of the Leash”.
Jazzy’s Place provides complementary dog food to individuals and families who, along with their canine companions, are faced with difficult times. Families will no longer need to take food off the table to feed their beloved pet dogs, nor abandon them to an animal shelter.
Contributors to food banks can have now greater confidence that their donations will benefit both families and their pets in times of hardship.
The CBF believes that the most efficient and cost-effective distribution channel to help those in need is through the Feeding America program and their network of fully vetted regional food banks and local pantries. This structure provides an optimized distribution method for delivering dog food to families in need and is compatible with existing human food distribution practices.
The Jazzy’s Place grant program has been adopted and successfully implemented by food banks across the country. New Food Bank members are being added each year along with their
participating pantries, further expanding their base of dog food recipients.
Strategic initiatives are being evaluated to feed an even greater number of households with pet dogs by increasing the number of food banks participating in the Jazzy’s Place grant program.
Most food banks are space constrained and prioritize feeding households, especially during times of food inflation and insecurity. The CBF is seeking to launch complementary initiatives that would provide a wider audience of households in need with both human and dog food.
One initiative would be to establish a preferred network of suppliers where food banks can purchase short-expiration dog food at drastically reduced prices. This will allow for prompt distribution and free up additional space for human food.
Another approach to addressing the space constraints of many food banks would be to establish a complementary dog food distribution program. One possibility is mobile delivery and auxiliary storage to alleviate space constraints and maximize human food distribution, similar to the Colorado Pet Pantry program[5]
When people experience hardships, they are forced to choose between feeding themselves or their pet dog. By giving grants that provide dog food to those truly in need, Jazzy’s Place provides an immediate and lasting solution to households facing this dilemma.