Heart, Love & Soul receives $200,000 from Mother Cabrini Health Foundation

Funding will support food and hospitality, social care programs

Heart, Love & Soul was awarded $200,000 of grant funding from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation in support of its food and hospitality and social care programs. The funding will build upon the agency’s mission of feeding those in need – body, mind and soul – by addressing food insecurity, inadequate housing, health, and other challenges associated with poverty.

“Heart, Love & Soul is extremely grateful to the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation to receive this grant for services that reach so many in the Niagara Falls community,” Executive Director Mark Baetzhold said. “We see firsthand the impact of poverty on our guests, and this generous and impactful funding from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation allows us to continue addressing the needs of the people in our community.”

Mother Cabrini Health Foundation CEO Monsignor Gregory Mustaciuolo said, “After nearly two years of recovery from a pandemic that has hit vulnerable populations the hardest, we must continue to address the challenges communities across New York state are facing: food and housing insecurity; lack of access to basic health care, including vaccines; lack of equity within the health care professions; and racial and economic health care disparities made worse during COVID-19. We must continue to support the full range of services that make for healthy people and communities.”

This grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation allows Heart, Love & Soul to increase access to nutritious meals for food insecure and low-income residents of Niagara County, and expand its Daybreak Program, where guests will find showers, laundry services, housing assistance, nursing care, crisis case management, and access to employment, education and other services provided onsite by partner agencies.

Founded in 1983, Heart, Love & Soul is a food pantry, dining room and social care provider in the north end of Niagara Falls. The organization provides daily hot meals, groceries, community health nursing, case management, and housing and outreach services. The Daybreak Program, the new social care program, offers a single point of access for housing, health and wellness, behavioral health, employment, education, legal and other services. For more information about Heart, Love & Soul, visit www.heartloveandsoul.org.

The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the health and well-being of New Yorkers, bolster the health outcomes of vulnerable communities, eliminate barriers to care, and bridge gaps in health services. Named after a tireless advocate for immigrants, children and the poor, the foundation funds programs and initiatives across New York that provide either direct health care services or address the social determinants of health. For more information, visit https://www.cabrinihealth.org.