Capstone Community Action Surpasses Fundraising Goal for Fuel Your Neighbors

For Immediate Release
Yvonne Lory, Capstone Community Action
Phone (802) 479-1053
Email: ylory@capstonevt.org

Capstone Community Action Surpasses Fundraising Goal for Fuel Your Neighbors

A campaign providing emergency food and heating assistance this winter

(Barre, VT) – Capstone Community Action’s Fuel Your Neighbors campaign, in partnership with VSECU, raised $301,649 to support emergency food and heating assistance to vulnerable Vermonters.

It has been another challenging winter with extended cold snaps combined with dramatic increases in fuel and food costs.  This has required many Vermont households to make difficult decisions on basic needs like heat and food. This winter, Capstone Community Action (Capstone) has again assisted hundreds of families in Central Vermont with fuel purchases, safety measures, and/or overdue bills so that central Vermonters could start receiving fuel deliveries again. At the same time, Capstone’s food shelf in Barre has fed over 1,200 individuals from 617 households.  This work is enhanced by a unique winter fundraiser.

“We are incredibly proud to share that over 30,000 central Vermonters have benefited from our Fuel Your Neighbors campaign since it began in 2016,” explained Sue Minter, Capstone’s executive director. “These are hard times for all of us, but especially for our low-income neighbors. Capstone’s ability to help local families fill the gap on basic needs, especially during a pandemic, is fundamental to our mission. Capstone is especially grateful for the support of so many businesses and individuals who got behind our campaign to make sure our neighbors did not go to bed hungry or cold this winter.”

Fuel Your Neighbors is a campaign, in partnership with VSECU, that ran from November 30, Giving Tuesday, through the end of March, to raise awareness and funds to support vulnerable Vermonters with food and heat this winter. This is the sixth year Capstone and VSECU have teamed up on this effort raising a total of $920,000 since 2016.

"Fuel Your Neighbors has proved again and again that we can come together to take care of each other," said Rob Miller, CEO at VSECU. "We're proud to have been part of this campaign and supported thousands of Vermonters to get the assistance they need to keep their homes warm and food on the table."

There were numerous generous business sponsors this year including: VSECU, The University of Vermont Health Network - Central Vermont Medical Center, NorthCountry Federal Credit Union, Red Hen Baking Co., The Alchemist, Lawson's Finest Liquids, rbTechnologies, LLC, Front Porch Forum, BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont, Mutual of America Financial Group, Hickok & Boardman Insurance Group, Union Mutual, Vermont Gas Systems, Passumpsic Bank, Frankenburg Agency, Inc., Main Street Landing, Waitsfield & Champlain Valley Telecom, WDEV, and The Point Radio.

Capstone Community Action was founded in 1965 and works to overcome poverty by serving people in crisis and creating economic opportunity for people and communities. Capstone’s programs include emergency food, heat assistance, housing counseling and homelessness intervention, savings and credit coaching, business counseling, workforce development, home weatherization, transportation access, and child and family development programs in Early Head Start/Head Start. We serve nearly 13,000 people through these programs each year. www.capstonevt.org.

VSECU is a member-owned cooperative and not for profit credit union for everybody who lives or works in Vermont, offering a full range of affordable financial products and services to its member-owners. VSECU is committed to improving the lives of Vermonters by empowering the possibilities for greater social, environmental, and financial prosperity. For more information about VSECU, call 802/800 371-5162 or visit www.vsecu.com.