Vale Food Pantry and Giggles & Grace ELC receive $15K each
By Logan Bagett on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
MALHEUR COUNTY — The Oregon Community Foundation has announced the awardees from their latest round of Community Grant funding. Two entities within Malheur County— the Vale Food Pantry and Giggles & Grace Early Learning Center, Inc. in Ontario—will each receive $15,000 from the foundation.
Giggles & Grace Early Learning Center Executive Director Shawn C. Reynolds said, “We live in what’s coined as a childcare desert.”
The center provides childcare, early Head Start and preschool to 250 children in Malheur County, according to a release from OCF.
Reynolds stated, “We have the highest poverty rates, and people need to be at work and kids need an education so that they can overcome generational poverty.”
The OCF release mentions, “Funding from OCF’s 2025 Spring Cycle of Community Grants is flexible, allowing organizations to invest the money where it is needed most. Statewide the program has awarded $5,629,398 to 241 nonprofits serving urban and rural communities.”
The next cycle of OCF Community Grants will be this fall.
