Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter Gets $1.25M Grant From Jeff Bezos Fund

NASHUA, NH — Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter (NSKS) has received a $1.25 million grant from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, the local nonprofit announced Tuesday.

The grant is the largest private gift in the history of the NSKS, which provides food, emergency shelter, housing, and supportive services to individuals and families throughout Greater Nashua.

The Day 1 Families Fund was launched in 2018 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and, according to its literature, issues annual "leadership awards" to leading organizations that are on the frontlines and doing "needle-moving" work to help families move from unsheltered homelessness and shelters to permanent housing with the services they require to achieve stability.

According to NSKS, the organization will use the funds from the one-time grant over a period of five years for staffing and programming at its new shelter, located at 35 Spring Street.

The new facility has 48 beds, which more than doubles the organization's capacity to serve families in need, according to NSKS.

"The Bezos Day 1 Families Fund grant will be transformative for Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter," said Michael Reinke, executive director at NSKS. "It comes at a particularly opportune moment, just as we are opening a new 20,000-square-foot emergency shelter."

According to the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, recipients are chosen for the grants by a group of national advisors who are leading advocates and experts on homelessness and service provision.

The fund has made a $2 billion commitment to focus on two areas: funding existing nonprofits that help families experiencing homelessness, and creating a network of new, nonprofit tier-one preschools in low-income communities.

The Bezos fund has issued a total of $125.45 million in grants this year to organizations working to combat homelessness, and it has made 170 grants for more than $520 million over the past five years.