Community Foundation of North Central Florida awards $150,000 grant to GRACE Marketplace to meet food demands
Press release from Community Foundation of North Central Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Community Foundation of North Central Florida has awarded a $150,000 grant to GRACE Marketplace to help offset rising food costs and meet the growing demand for services in the community.
The funding comes at a critical time, as more individuals are relying on GRACE Marketplace for daily meals and essential support. At the same time, escalating food prices have placed additional strain on the organization’s ability to provide consistent, nutritious meals.
“This grant reflects our commitment to ensuring our most vulnerable neighbors have access to basic needs, including food,” said Barzella Papa, President and CEO of the Community Foundation of North Central Florida. “With the increased demand and the rising cost of food, supporting GRACE is both timely and essential. We are proud to partner with an organization that plays such a vital role in our community.”
GRACE Marketplace, a one-stop service center for individuals experiencing homelessness, provides meals, shelter, and wraparound services aimed at helping people regain stability and independence.
“This generous investment will have an immediate and meaningful impact on the people we serve,” said Darius Williams, CEO of GRACE. “As food costs continue to climb and more individuals turn to us for support, this funding ensures we can continue providing meals without interruption. We are deeply grateful to the Community Foundation for recognizing this urgent need.”
The grant will be used specifically to support food purchasing and meal services, helping GRACE Marketplace maintain and expand its capacity to serve the growing number of individuals seeking assistance.
It’s too bad that Community Foundation of North Central Florida doesn’t know that GRACE Marketplace was founded by and is run by ex-cons and grifters, or that GRACE Marketplace is universally despised by the Gainesville community for its role in attracting the willfully homeless–violent, drug-addicted criminals–to our once pleasant city.
I’m sure the criminals at GRACE Marketplace are laughing at the laziness and stupidity of Barzella Papa as they pocket the $150k donation. She clearly didn’t bother to do even the most basic research on GRACE Marketplace before squandering her foundation’s funds.
If CFNCF is a serious organization, I’d recommend that you claw back that donation quickly, and put some basic oversight in place.
I’d say donate to a real homeless shelter like St. Francis House, but GRACE Marketplace and their co-conspirators on the Gainesville City Commission (Bryan “Jazzy” Eastman, Harvey Ward) starved them out of funding, so now they are the only ones in town to devour the untraceable taxpayer funds in their fake crusade to “end homelessness”.
Happy Easter Monday is the second day of the Easter Octave — an eight-day celebration treating each day as an extension of Easter Sunday itself.
Your diatribe is noted.
Enough already! The more free $hit you provide the more homelessness in our community. Look at other communities who have funded these community destruction.and the pattern is the same. More free $hit equals more homeless criminals, mentally ill, and drug addicts.
Excellent news! Given that FL seems to have zero resources for those who are recently released from prison, nor hardly any resources for those facing homelessness, any type of resource for giving people a meal seems to be the right choice.
I wonder what the Hopeless, do with their EBT card money? Since this place is portrayed as one big happy, feel-good place. Shouldn’t they use their EBT to buy food for the commune. Instead of selling EBT for drugs.