The City’s Charlestown Community Impact Fund approved more than $370,000 in grants to nonprofits in its neighborhood for the winter 2020-2021 season Monday — following a diminished 2020 grant season in the shadow of COVID-19.
The Fund’s Managing Committee voted unanimously to approve grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 for more than 30 Charlestown arts, philanthropy and recreation organizations, among others. While approved, grant award letters and final agreements are still forthcoming.
The Charlestown Community Impact Fund provides “mini-grants” to local nonprofits focused on public spaces, after-school and senior programs, job training initiatives and cultural events.
The fund was created in 2016 as a condition of the State’s approval of Encore Boston Harbor, a resort and casino in Everett that is across the Mystic River from Charlestown. Wynn Resorts, which operates Encore, contributed $1 million to the fund that year, in addition to $2 million annually since the casino opened.
Harvest on Vine food pantry, which runs out of the St. Mary St. Catherine of Siena Parish, requested and was approved for $12,000.
Director of Social Ministries Tom MacDonald said the entire amount will go toward purchasing food — especially fruits and vegetables, which can be difficult to find in the area.
“We get tables of fresh produce, so that we can give each family a five-pound bag of potatoes, a bag of carrots, bag of onions, we give out bok choy,” MacDonald said. “We give out things for the kids like bananas, apples, oranges.”
The pantry opens twice a month: the morning of the second Saturday and the afternoon of the final Tuesday.
While families used to be restricted to one visit per month, MacDonald said the pantry began allowing visitors to come both days when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“People were in dire straits,” he said. “I was visiting a food pantry in downtown Boston just to see how they do things, and I saw half our clients down there too, getting more food.”
A few blocks northwest of the church is Charlestown’s Preservation Park is — a small green triangle that has blossomed into an outdoor gathering space since the start of the pandemic, said Amanda Zettel, president of the Charlestown Preservation Society.
The society was approved for $10,000 to restore the park, which Zettel said would go toward new lighting, additional planting and the restoration of the park’s stepping stones and granite pillars.
“What we’re trying to do is make it a little bit more lively,” she said.
Zettel added that the Charlestown Preservation Society led the push to first create the park out of a left-over median in the road two decades ago.
“That area is very interesting because it used to be houses, it was some of the oldest houses in Charlestown that were demolished to make way for urban renewal,” Zettel said. “It took many years of advocating to turn that into green space from asphalt space.”
Zettel said the society is a small, mostly volunteer organization that typically relies on fundraising events such as its biennial tour of historic Charlestown homes — adding that the park project could not have happened without the Impact Fund grant.
“It’s definitely a godsend this year,” Zettel said. “Because of COVID, we had to cancel our house tour last year … so we really missed out on a lot of our funding sources this year.”
Charlestown’s Town Track Club was approved for a $15,000 grant — $6,000 more than it had initially requested.
That money will go toward the costs of equipment storage, event hosting and the purchase of new equipment such as uniforms and hurdles, according to the Impact Fund.
Sean Nyhan, president and head coach, said new uniforms were especially important, adding that the program usually lets participants keep their uniform — popular among Charlestown families for its Irish flag motif.
“Kids grow fast, so they need uniforms,” Nyhan said. “We’re a city team, and we don’t want the kids to feel like they’re getting the cheap end of the deal, the raw end of the deal.”
Nyhan said running is often viewed as an inclusive sport with a low cost of entry, but team equipment such as hurdles and javelins can run for thousands of dollars.
He said he was eager to get kids back on the track but anticipates a late start in the summer, noting that track meets can be more crowded than “naturally” distanced sports like baseball.
“I hate doing practice with youth when you don’t have something to practice for,” Nyhan said. “A lot of parents are like, ‘Oh, it’s great, my kids are getting in shape.’ But the kids will tell you they like to compete, they want to have a reason to train.”
