Project Description
Cousins Subs awarded a $2,000 grant to COA Youth & Family Centers for its Home-based Literacy Program for Preschoolers (HIPPY). The grant funds will be used to sponsor families in the HIPPY program. Although HIPPY is free for participants, the program cost per family is around $1,000. This includes the cost of books, activities, family gathering nights and home visits from Parent Partners.
Cousins Subs has had a longstanding tradition of addressing the community’s greatest needs and continues to be driven by the mission to “make it better” in all that it does. In 2013, the Make It Better Foundation was established as an extension of that philosophy and is dedicated to funding causes that address health and wellness, hunger and youth education in the communities that Cousins Subs serves. Whether it’s supporting reading programs, hosting donation nights for local schools, providing nonprofits with healthier food options or donating food to local shelters, Cousins believes that as an organization invested in its local communities it is a responsibility to give back.
Since its inception, Cousins Make It Better Foundation has awarded approximately $60,000 to local organizations including: Community Clothes Closet; Middleton Outreach Ministry Food Pantry; Hope House of Milwaukee; Literacy Green Bay; Faith, Hope, and Love; Severson Sisters Foundation; Friends of St. Catherine and Hope Center, Inc. Most recently, the Foundation has awarded grants to not only COA Youth & Family Centers, but to the Boys and Girls Club of Green Bay for its Teen Cuisine program and the Wheaton Franciscan St. Joseph Foundation for Anywhere CPR Training.
Annually, the Foundation is a proponent of youth education through its Wisconsin Sports Awards Scholarship Contest, which awards $14,000 in scholarships to high school senior athletes throughout Wisconsin who exemplify academic acumen, participate in community service and have plans to pursue higher education.
In addition, the Foundation recently kicked off a partnership with the Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation (VLCF). The Wisconsin-based organizations first teamed up in June 2015 for the Make It Better Day initiative, where Cousins Subs distributed more than 700 free lunches to cancer patients, their families and caregivers at all 22 Wisconsin-based Aurora Cancer Care Centers, which include 13 Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinics. Starting this September, Cousins will launch its first-ever month of giving fundraiser— ‘Combos For A Cure’— to benefit VLCF. From September 1st – 30th, Cousins Subs locations throughout Wisconsin will donate a percentage of every combo meal sold to benefit the Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation. The Cousins Subs Make It Better Foundation will also make a contribution for a total donation of $50,000 going to cancer care and research.
It is through collaboration with local organizations like Cousins Subs that we are able to create lasting, positive change. COA would like to thank Cousins Subs for their generous support of the HIPPY program!