New Reach Inc. awarded $300,000 grant from KeyBank Foundation to support FISH Food Security Program
New Haven, CT – October 30, 2024 – New Reach, Inc. of New Haven has received a $300,000 Community Impact Grant from KeyBank Foundation. The grant will provide funding over three years to support the FISH hunger-fighting initiative, a program serving Greater New Haven that delivers healthy groceries to residents who are homebound due to age or health-related mobility limitations. Merged in 2023 with New Reach, a leading agency in interventions for homelessness, FISH is the only resource in the area dedicated exclusively to ensuring food security for people who cannot utilize traditional pantries. KeyBank’s funding will be used to stabilize FISH operations, supporting existing personnel costs and core operating expenses, while also enabling leadership to explore avenues to optimize and sustain the program for the long-term benefit of the population served.
"I want to extend our deepest gratitude to KeyBank for their incredibly generous donation to FISH, our food security program,” said New Reach CEO Kellyann Day. “Their support not only helps to provide essential resources to those in need but also strengthens our mission of ensuring that no one in our community goes hungry. This donation will make a real, lasting impact, and we are truly thankful for their commitment to creating positive change."
New Reach strives to make homelessness and hunger a rare, brief, and one-time experience for everyone it serves. As a leader in Connecticut, the agency has been providing innovative interventions and supportive services to people in crisis for the last 34 years. New Reach serves over 5,000 adults and children annually in Greater New Haven and Fairfield County through a broad spectrum of prevention, crisis, and housing programs. Last year, New Reach added FISH to its organization, a nonprofit focused on food security that had become an institution in the New Haven area over its 55 years of service. The merger has enabled FISH to benefit operationally from New Reach’s infrastructure, including administrative support, quality assurance, and fundraising efforts. FISH serves over 1,200 residents from more than 800 households each month, including elderly persons and young children.
“KeyBank Foundation focuses on improving lives in the communities that our bank serves by partnering with nonprofits who create safe, healthy, affordable, inclusive communities,” said KeyBank Market President Matthew Hummel. “We share New Reach’s vision to create access to affordable housing, nutritious food, and other basic services that residents need to be healthy and self-sufficient.”
KeyBank Foundation grants are part of a $40 billion commitment for lending and investments across Key’s national footprint established in 2017 and supporting affordable housing and community development projects, home, and small business lending in low- and-moderate income communities, and philanthropic efforts targeted toward education, workforce development, and safe, vital neighborhoods. For more information, visit www.Key.com/Foundation.
Photo Caption: Leaders from KeyBank, New Reach/FISH and board members gathered at FISH’s Warehouse on Peck Street in New Haven for a check presentation. Pictured from left: Jane Glassman, New Reach Board
Member; Julia Hunt Bogardus, New Reach Board Member; Chelsea Reid, New Reach Director of Operations; Joe Arnone, FISH Operations Manager; Nancy Williams, FISH Pantry Manager; Matt Hummel, KeyBank Market President; Jocelyn Antunes, New Reach Program Director; Kristin Bures, KeyBank Business Banker; Meredith Clay, New Reach Chief Quality and Compliance Officer; William Dow, New Reach Board Member; Tara Courtmanche, New Reach Board Member; Dwayne Hicks, KeyBank Branch Manager; and Analisha Michanczyk, KeyBank Corporate Responsibility Officer.
About New Reach Inc. and FISH, A Program of New Reach
New Reach is the entry point to an integrated system of care, providing a solution-oriented process with the goal of achievable and sustainable results. The multifaceted organization offers eviction prevention, shelter diversion, shelters for women and children, FISH, rapid rehousing, supportive housing, and affordable housing. New Reach attributes its success to its best practice model, commitment to long-term impact, strategic planning, and dedicated staff, all working together toward the mission to inspire lasting independence for all affected by homelessness and poverty through a continuum of housing and support, using the most innovative, progressive, equitable and inclusive methods.
FISH, previously FISH of Greater New Haven, operated for 55 years as a standalone community organization. Its mission-driven work was refined to a food security focus under a pantry model for the last 30 years, evolving over time in response to the growing need for a delivery system to serve mobility-compromised homebound clients. FISH credits its success to its resourceful staff and dedicated volunteers. Every month, over one hundred people give their time to assist the program team with preparing packages of groceries and making home deliveries. With the merger officially integrating FISH as a program, New Reach is committed to ensuring that the operation continues to deliver the vital service that clients have come to count on, providing food security and promoting wellbeing within the community.
About KeyBank Foundation:
KeyBank Foundation serves to fulfill KeyBank’s purpose to help clients and communities thrive, and its mission is to support organizations and programs that prepare people for thriving futures. The Foundation’s mission is advanced through three funding priorities – neighbors, education, and workforce – and through community service. To provide meaningful philanthropy that transforms lives, KeyBank Foundation listens carefully to understand the unique characteristics and needs of its communities and then backs solutions with targeted philanthropic investments. KeyBank Foundation is a nonprofit charitable foundation, funded by KeyCorp.
About KeyCorp/KeyBank
KeyCorp's roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $190 billion at September 30, 2024. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,200 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.
Media contacts:
New Reach: Sheridan Robles, Development, Marketing & Communication Officer| 475-480-4016 | srobles@newreach.org
KeyBank: Karen Crane, Communications Manager | 203-789-2752 | karen_crane@keybank.com