General Mills Awards First Communities of Color Grants

Nonprofit groups representing the breadth and diversity of the Twin Cities community have received the first round of Celebrating Communities of Color grants from the General Mills Foundation, Minneapolis. The program will serve more than 28,000 people in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.

The foundation has awarded grants of $10,000 each to 25 groups ranging from nonprofits that serve immigrant communities to theater and dance companies to social service agencies. Another 25 groups that serve communities of color will receive the second round of grants this fall.

Grant recipients include the Confederation of the Somali Community in Minnesota and the new Living Across Cultures program, which helps Somali girls (age 9-13) and their mothers make the transition to American life; HACER, which addresses how gang activity affects Latino families and communities through a bilingual program; the Ragamala Music and Dance Theater, which will present a cross-cultural collaborative piece that combines ancient artistic traditions from South India and Bali; and the Concordia Language Villages, which will offer a Hmong family weekend program that integrates Hmong tradition and customs with American culture.

"This new program has been an exciting way to celebrate and support the growing communities of color including the recent immigrant population. It's also a wonderful way to celebrate the General Mills Foundation's 50th anniversary of giving," said Chris Shea, president of the foundation. "We have always served communities of color, but this initiative gives us even deeper and broader grantmaking capabilities throughout the Twin Cities metro area."

In continuing with the company's strong tradition of employee volunteerism, General Mills employees also participated in the new initiative by helping to evaluate programs.

For a complete list of grant recipients of the General Mills Foundation's Celebrating Communities of Color grants (PDF, 8 pages), click here.

Information on the grant application process for the Celebrating Communities of Color grant program is available online at www.generalmills.com/foundation. The deadline for the next round of grants is September 15, 2004.

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