The Community Impact Fund has been established to provide annual granting in support of PEI’s most pressing needs and priorities. The focus of the 2024 Community Impact Fund will be in support of Food Insecurity on PEI. Every donation to the fund will have double impact – 75% will be granted immediately and 25% will be invested in an endowment to ensure growth in granting FOREVER!

The 2024 Community Impact Fund is expected to distribute a minimum of $40,000 towards Food Insecurity Projects on PEI in the form of multiple micro grants up to $5,000 per recipient.

FOOD INSECURITY ON PEI
Food insecurity is the inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints. It is a serious public health problem, a marker of pervasive material deprivation, and a matter of public policy. Prince Edward Island is leading the country in food insecurity, and more than one-third of Island children live in homes without a stable source of healthy food, according to numbers released by Statistics Canada.

The University of Toronto compiled the data, which excludes the territories. The figures indicate food insecurity on the Island has risen dramatically in recent years. The percentage of people not able to afford the kind of nutritious food they need rose to 23.6 per cent in 2022 compared to 17.3 per cent in 2019. As for children, 35.1 per cent lived in food-insecure households in 2022 compared to 24.5 per cent in 2019. In the four years from 2019 and 2022, P.E.I. led the country for food insecurity in all but one year, 2021.

The annual granting capacity of the Community Impact Fund is derived from individual and corporate donations, combined with the annual granting capacity of several endowment funds within the Community Foundation of PEI. These funds currently include:

The fund is currently estimated to grant $40,000 back our Island communities in 2024, in the form of multiple micro-grants up to $5,000 per recipient organization.