Our restaurant and food assistance program just received another surprise gift.

 

The state-funded program which purchases local restaurant meals and then distributes them to those with food insecurity has drawn down its entire $75,000 allocation in Newton, supplying close to 5,000 meals to residents in need since early March.

 

Now, thanks to a generous anonymous $10,000 donation, the program will be extended a few more weeks to be able to supply an additional 500 meals.

 

The same private donor behind the Newton gift is also underwriting our program in Needham -- delivering 85 meals weekly to seniors in partnership with Needham's Council on Aging. 

 

Our Wellesley program -- funded with $40,000 same state earmark secured by Sen. Cindy Creem -- still has additional state funds to spend. In Wellesley, an average of 200 meal deliveries per week continue.

 

All together, these three programs alongside “Feeding Brookline” (also funded by the same state budget earmark and run by the Brookline Chamber) are supporting hard-hit local restaurants with over $200,000 in sales.

 
 

 

Yesterday I wrote about how the federal Paycheck Protection Program (which has essentially run out of money) was a life saver for many businesses and nonprofits.

 

Also vital was a state grants program administered by the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, which made its final awards to businesses this week.

 

Gov. Charlies Baker calls it "one of the most important initiatives" his administration pursued during the pandemic.

 

Launched in October 2020, the program provided over $687.2 million in direct cash grants to 15,112 businesses across the state. Baker says it's the biggest state-sponsored business COVID relief program in the nation.

 

Forty-three percent of MGCC grants were awarded to minority-owned businesses. Forty-six percent of grants went to women-owned businesses.

 

Businesses owned by veterans, individuals with disabilities, or that identify as LGBTQ, as well as those operating in Gateway Cities and not previously awarded aid, also received substantial grant support.

 

“I hope when someone finally writes the book on COVID-19 in Massachusetts that there will be a chapter for Mass Growth Capital and its partners because they literally have saved thousands of companies here in the Commonwealth,” said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy.

 

Kennealy is not wrong. This program especially made a difference for our smallest of small businesses.

 

 

The pandemic has changed the way we eat, how we feel about sweatpants, how often we shower and how we help others: Here's a sweet story about a trend in Oklahoma.

 

 

 

 

 

Needham Town Meeting has adopted a strong racial equity statement and guiding principles that could become a model for other municipalities to follow. The statement was created by the NUARI (Needham Unites Against Racism Initiative) a group of civic leaders, business owners and citizen created last summer. Find videos, minutes and other resources here.

 

 

Wellesley has launched several initiatives aimed to make the best of its vacant stores.

 

 

 

The state has announced an extension of administrative tax relief measures for businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, especially in the restaurant and hospitality sectors. AIM has a summary here.

 
 

 

 

 

The Massachusetts Nurses Association kicked off National Nurses Week with what union President Katie Murphy described as a stop on their "no cupcake tour."

 

Murphy, an intensive care unit nurse at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said that rather than treats and other tokens, nurses want to see legislative action that will improve conditions for them and their patients, reports Katie Lannan at State House News.

 

"This year, what nurses really want is not pizza or flowers or accolades," she said. “What we would like you to celebrate National Nurses Week with is safe staffing, with workplace violence prevention, with occupational presumption and with the protection of essential services."

 

"Workplace violence has long been prevalent in the health care arena for a variety of reasons, all exacerbated by the COVID virus," said Needham state Rep. Denise Garlick, author of a bill requiring health care employers create workplace violence prevention programs.

 

The union released findings from a survey in which 57 percent of respondents reported encountering at least one instance of workplace violence or abuse in the past two years.

 

Seventeen percent of surveyed nurses said they had contracted COVID-19. About three-quarters of that group believe they caught the virus while at work.

 

 

I received an email this week from a reader asking me if I knew that many of the articles I link to daily are behind a paywall.

 

Of course, I do. (And so does my credit card bill.)

 

In fact, one of the reasons I link to so many subscription-required sites is because I want to entice you to subscribe too.

 

The free press isn’t free. The journalists who keep us informed -- and the companies that employ them -- depend on each of us to tell the stories that need to be told. 

 

 

That’s today’s Need to Knows. See you Tuesday.

 

And thanks mom!

 

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