5 Healthy Towns suspending coalition activity for at least 60 days
5 Healthy Towns, which funds many interventions in Manchester, most recently including school gardens, MCS kids’ summer camp, Acorn Farmers Market and Café, Run Manchester, Link Crew at the High School, Dance Manchester, the Manchester Farmer’s Market, SRSLY Manchester, the Community Garden, Adaptive Movement and Safe Routes to School, is suspending its coalition activity during the COVID-19 crisis.
They can’t estimate how long the suspension will be, but are “hopeful 60 days will assure everyone can reestablish a semblance of normalcy.” They are suspending meetings, comprehensive wellness planning, and reviews. Funding will be temporarily halted, except for interventions that may lose matching funds if not funded immediately. They will also fund interventions that require funding to meet a current contractual obligation. They anticipate all other grants will be considered in June, assuming they are able to reestablish usual routines.
5 Healthy Towns representatives stated, “Our Board recognizes the work we do is critical to our communities, long-term. However, COVID-19 reset everyone’s priorities. For now, prevention of acute, not chronic, disease is the priority. Many of the organizations and individuals with whom we work, as well as our board members, are focused on immediate health and community welfare. 5 Healthy Towns Foundation is deferring to our communities’ new priorities, refocusing our efforts on facilitating connections between those providing for urgent needs and those who have urgent needs.”
They continued, “Please know these suspensions are temporary. We want everyone to be focused on the task at hand. We hope you understand and appreciate your patience. There is plenty of time ahead to return to our important work and in fact, this sort of crisis highlights the need for building communities that support our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.”
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