$3 Million Grant For Montco-Based Mitzvah Circle Foundation

WEST NORRITON TOWNSHIP, PA — A local organization that works to 'fill the gap' by providing items of need not provided by government assistant has received a hefty grant to help with its mission.

The Mitzvah Circle Foundation, which is headquartered in West Norriton Township, received a $3 million state grant to help the group expand its mission to provide critical services and deliver immediate needs to vulnerable families and individuals in the county.

The foundation partners with more than 300 local organizations to provide donated goods and purchased items such as clothing, shoes, diapers, toiletries, housewares and more to those in need.

The grant money comes from funding originating from the American Rescue Plan Act.

"Mitzvah Circle is honored to receive this funding," MCF Founder and Director Fran Held said in a statement. "It allows us to continue serving the most vulnerable families in Montgomery County."

The organization says its aim is to help families in need break the cycle of crisis and poverty.

"Mitzvah Circle reaches into every corner of Montgomery County, and it is great that as a delegation — House and Senate — we were able to work together to secure these funds," State Rep. Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, said in a statement.

Bradford was among a number of area legislators celebrating the $3 million grant this week.

"While Mitzvah Circle fills in the gap, we know that the pandemic widened the gap," fellow House member Liz Hanbidge, D-Montgomery, said in a statement. "We know that a lot of people who were on the edge of security, lost their sense of security, and we know that a lot of people who had never asked for help were reaching out."

Another Montgomery County Democratic state lawmaker, Rep. Joe Webster, said this latest investment would help to "expand the reach and capacity that Mitzvah Circle can offer the people of Montgomery County," calling the organization an "extraordinary non-profit, right in our backyard ..."

Mitzvah Circle delivers personalized boxes of essential items right to the doorsteps of many medically fragile and food-insecure families across the county, and works to determine the different needs of families in order to offer individualized assistance, according to the organization.

More about the organization can be learned here on the group's website.