ROCKY MOUNT, N.C., (April 4, 2024) – Today, the Golden LEAF Board of Directors awarded $8,097,006 in funding to support scholarships for students to attend North Carolina community colleges, the Flood Mitigation Grant Program, the Food Distribution Assistance Program, and the Community-Based Grants Initiative in the Piedmont-Triad Prosperity Zone.
“Today the Board awarded funding for scholarships, workforce preparedness, food distribution assistance, and flood mitigation,” said Golden LEAF Board Chair Ralph Strayhorn. “These projects are part of larger strategies that will improve the long-term economic advancement of rural, tobacco-dependent, and economically distressed communities across North Carolina. We look forward to the impact these projects will have for years to come.”
The North Carolina Community College System was awarded $2,100,000 by the Golden LEAF Board to support scholarships for students from rural and suburban counties to attend participating North Carolina community colleges. Curriculum students can receive up to $2,250 per year, and continuing education students can receive up to $1,850 per year. The Golden LEAF Foundation has awarded funds for scholarships to students attending North Carolina community colleges since 2000.
“The Golden LEAF Scholarship Program is an important component of the Foundation’s workforce preparedness strategy,” said Golden LEAF President, Chief Executive Officer Scott T. Hamilton. “Our goal is for Golden LEAF scholars to gain the talent, knowledge, and skills necessary to help North Carolina’s employers that are outside our urban areas by growing the workforce and therefore helping these communities move the economic needle.”
The State of North Carolina appropriated $25 million to the Golden LEAF Foundation to establish the Flood Mitigation Grant Program. The Flood Mitigation Grant Program provides up to $2,000,000 per project to units of local government. Funds are focused on projects that address frequent flooding that impacts residents and businesses in a community. The Golden LEAF Board awarded $5,531,456 in funding to eight projects through the Flood Mitigation Grant Program in Ashe, Avery, Brunswick, Craven, Dare, Duplin, Pasquotank, and Perquimans counties.
- $995,000 to the Town of Beech Mountain in Avery County for engineering and construction to upsize stormwater infrastructure under Greenbriar Road to mitigate frequent flooding.
- $1,528,000 to the City of Elizabeth City in Pasquotank County for engineering and construction to restore a drainage canal including improvements to reduce erosion, to upsize existing culverts, and for other improvements to restore flow of stormwater.
- $650,600 to the Town of Hertford in Perquimans County for engineering and construction to upsize existing stormwater infrastructure.
- $478,850 to the Town of Nags Head in Dare County for construction costs to upsize existing stormwater infrastructure.
- $579,500 to the Town of Oak Island in Brunswick County for engineering and construction to install a dune infiltration system along with a small pump station and reinforced concrete pipe to reduce flooding.
- $395,800 to the Town of Rose Hill in Duplin County for engineering and construction to enclose a portion of the ditch, install catch basins, and reshape and stabilize the ditch bank.
- $693,706 to the Town of Trent Woods in Craven County for engineering and construction to reshape existing drainage ditches, upsize existing culverts, and install stormwater piping.
- $210,000 to the Town of West Jefferson in Ashe County for engineering and construction to install piping, catch basins and drainage inlets along Long Street and Backstreet.
The State of North Carolina appropriated $10 million to Golden LEAF for the Food Distribution Assistance Program. This program is funded by federal State Fiscal Recovery Funds through the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Funds may be used for grants to nonprofit organizations to assist organizations in becoming eligible to be partner agencies of a North Carolina food bank or enhancing or expanding the capacity of current partner agencies of North Carolina food banks. Funds may also be used for grants to nonprofit organizations to assist organizations in establishing a school-based weekend food assistance program or enhancing or expanding the capacity of current school-based weekend food assistance programs. The Golden LEAF Board awarded $81,000 to Hola Carolina in Henderson County for a cargo van, cargo van upfit, two tents, tables and chairs, storage containers, a hand truck, tablets/iPads and printers to be used for mobile distribution.
Through the Community-Based Grants Initiative, Golden LEAF works directly in one Prosperity Zone annually to identify projects with the greatest potential to have a significant impact. The Golden LEAF Board awarded $384,550 to GuilfordWorks/Workforce Development Board in Guilford County to support education and training for workers to help meet the area demand of the growing renewable energy, clean energy, and electrical vehicle industries for workers in advanced manufacturing, industrial technology, biotechnology, and skilled trades. Golden LEAF funds are for personnel, work-based learning, support services, equipment, outreach, instruction, and travel costs.
Since 1999, Golden LEAF has funded 2,256 projects totaling $1.3 billion supporting the mission of advancing economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural, tobacco-dependent, and economically distressed communities.
About Golden LEAF
The Golden LEAF Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1999 to receive a portion of North Carolina’s funding from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers. For 25 years, Golden LEAF has worked to increase economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural and tobacco-dependent communities through leadership in grantmaking, collaboration, innovation, and stewardship as an independent and perpetual foundation.
The Foundation has provided lasting impact to tobacco-dependent, economically distressed, and rural areas of the state by helping create 68,000 jobs, more than $780 million in new payrolls, and more than 98,000 workers trained or retrained for higher wages.
For more information about Golden LEAF and our programs, please visit our website at www.goldenleaf.org.
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