Low-income Kent County residents will have increased access to emergency housing and home repairs, health care, and more with the support of $220,000 in grants from the Potter Charity Trust Fund at the CenDel Foundation, a fund of the Delaware Community Foundation.

Caring Hearts Helping Hands, Inc. – $11,000 to provide support to low-income working families for the holidays with toys, clothing, and food gift cards.

Catholic Charities, Inc. – $35,000 to provide financial assistance, coaching, and other resources to prevent homelessness.

Code Purple Kent County Delaware – $10,000 to provide emergency shelter, food and other items necessary for people in need.

Communities in Schools of Delaware, Inc. – $30,000 to coordinate a continuum of care for students in need and their families (in partnership with the Food Bank of Delaware, Goodwill, NCALL, Westside Family Healthcare and several other local nonprofits).

Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition– $30,000: to provide immediate financial assistance to Kent County residents in need who are undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing, Inc. – $4,000 to create access to essential services that enable homeless adults to acquire existing benefits and employment.

Milford Housing Development Corporation – $40,000 to provide free emergency home repairs to eliminate unexpected and immediate threats to life, health and safety for low-income homeowners (in partnership with the Modern Maturity Center and Catholic Charities).

National Council on Agricultural Life and Labor Research Fund – $40,000 to provide a plan for crisis and emergency assistance for residents in the Restoring Central Dover plan area (in partnership with the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance).

Peoples Place II, Inc. – $20,000 to provide shelter for homeless victims and victims of domestic violence in two Kent County shelters.

The Benjamin Potter Trust Fund is an endowed fund that will generate a perpetual stream of charitable dollars for the economically underprivileged in Kent County, Delaware, as directed by the will of Colonel Benjamin Potter. Since 1843 the Potter Charity Trust has supported programs that have a lasting, positive impact in Central Delaware. Starting in 2012, the grant process has been managed by the CenDel Foundation, also a fund of the DCF.

“Even now, nearly 175 years after Col. Potter’s death, his work to improve the community continues through the Benjamin Potter Trust,” DCF President and CEO Stuart Comstock-Gay said. “Our goal at the DCF is to help people give with lasting impact, and we are proud to continue Col. Potter’s legacy through grants that directly benefit Kent Countians in need.”