Big Grove Brewery has announced the recipients of its grant program, which awards $8,000 to selected nonprofit organizations.
According to a news release, a total of $48,000 was delivered to these six local organizations in Johnson, Linn, and Polk counties as a part of their Big Grove for Good program. That program has primary giving tenets which focus on environmental, equity, and equality related causes, which lended into the selection process.
“We were overwhelmed with the response and interest in our grant program again this year.” said Mikala Demet, Big Grove’s community and project manager, in the release. “We received almost 200 applications from admirable and exceptional nonprofits across the state. Our grant committees in each location spent hours reviewing each application and discussing who we could best partner with and support the work they do in our communities.”
The Johnson County recipients are the Antelope Lending Library and Wright House of Fashion.
Antelope Lending Library is an independent, bookmobile library working to overcome barriers and provide equal access to information and ideas in our community.
Wright House works to inspire and engages youth in collaborative partnerships with the fashion design community.
The Polk County recipients are SafeNetRx and Mary’s Helping Hands.
SafeNetRx operates the nation’s largest drug donation repository where unused medicine from our health systems and homes are collected, inspected by pharmacists, and distributed to patients struggling with medication insecurity.
Mary’s Helping Hands provides much needed clothing and accessories to struggling mothers, families and their babies.
The Linn County recipients are Young Parents Network (YPN) and Eastern Iowa Arts Academy.
YPN offers parenting classes for first-time parents, giving them the tools they need to be the parents they want to be.
The Eastern Iowa Arts Academy makes the arts accessible to all K-12 students through programming in the Cedar Rapids Community Schools, College Community Schools, and on campus at the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy’s Music and Arts Studios.
This marks the first year that Linn county was included in the grant program, according to the release.
“Since opening in December of 2023, the Big Grove Cedar Rapids taproom has seen a welcoming and positive response from the community” said Andrew Mitchell, the general manager of Big Grove Cedar Rapids. “The staff looks forward to continuing to build relationships and provide resources to the people of Cedar Rapids and Linn County.”
You can learn more about Big Grove for Good, and the recipients of their grants by going to biggrove.com/pages/big–grove–
