Kindred Credit Union Charitable Fund Announces 2025 Grant Recipients

$10,000 grant
Theme: Housing
Project: New Beginnings: A Place to Call Home
Elmira, ON
beyondhousing.ca

Beyond Housing is committed to providing quality, affordable housing that is thoughtfully designed and is responsive to the needs of tenants, recognizing that stable and secure housing improves quality of life. These funds will offset the costs of site plans and architectural drawings for a project to build 20 new affordable rental homes for people with low income.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Hunger
Project: Springbank Community and Food Bank Gardens
Cambridge, ON
raresites.org

rare Charitable Research Reserve is a community-based land trust and environmental institute dedicated to protecting over 1,500 acres of environmentally sensitive land across Waterloo Region and Wellington County. This grant will support the Springbank Community and Food Bank Gardens, providing fresh food to local community members, as well as the Cambridge Food Bank.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Hunger
Kindred Soup Corner
Kitchener, ON
nutritionforlearning.ca

Nutrition for Learning strives to elevate the experience of universal food access at schools in ways that promote optimal wellbeing, healthy relationships, and food literacy. The funds will provide 3 schools with the needed infrastructure to create soup stations in their student nutrition programs.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Mental Health
Project: Mental Health Access Fund
Aylmer, ON
thefamilycentral.ca

The Family Central exists to serve as a source of hope, working toward restoration of agency (no longer a victim), and transformation for those experiencing the challenges of poverty, homelessness, mental health, and addictions. The grant will provide members of the vulnerable community access to mental health funding as part of their plan of care.

$7,500 grant
Theme: Hunger
Project: Waterloo Region Youth Food Market
Waterloo, ON
seeds.ca

Seeds of Diversity Canada is a member-based organization of farmers and gardeners who preserve the biodiversity and sustainability of the basic buildng blocks of our food system: seeds, plants, and pollinators. This grant will support the Waterloo Region Youth Food Market which provides fresh produce in neighbourhoods that lack easy access to affordable, nutritious fruits and vegetables by supporting high-school age youth to grow and source food locally and set it at pop-up markets, at affordable prices, where food insecurity is greatest.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Housing
Project: Waterloo Region Home Share and Open Homes
Kitchener, ON
cjiwr.com

Community Justice Initiatives of Waterloo Region is a volunteer-based organization seeking to inspire safe, healthy, and peaceful communities where all conflict is resolved in a restorative way. The Waterloo Region Home Share program connects precariously housed youth and adults experiencing low income with people who are interested in sharing their homes in order to explore co-housing together. WRHS provides a supportive conflict resolution and relationship-building process to increase the success of home sharing and co-housing.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Housing
Project: Newcomer Housing Fund
Kitchener, ON

Part of the mission of St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church is to provide education, counselling, and other support services to immigrants and refugees in need. This grant will help the church maintain the nine homes they own that provide deeply affordable, temporary housing to racialized newcomers.

$8,000 grant
Theme: Mental Health
Project: Brain Injury Mental Health Support
Kitchener, ON
biaww.org

The Brain Injury Association of Waterloo-Wellington is devoted to providing advocacy, education, connections, and empowerment for individuals with acquired brain injury and their families. This grant will be used to provide survivors with subscriptions to mental health apps and the required staff support as a pilot project.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Housing
Project: Safe Haven: Transitional Housing Support for Racialized Muslim Women
Kitchener, ON
cmw-kw.org

Founded in 2010 by a handful of diverse Muslim women, the Coalition of Muslim Women of K-W empowers women and girls to be leaders and changemakers. This grant will support the Safe Haven program, addressing the needs of racialized Muslim women experiencing homelessness due to gender-based violence.

$7,500 grant
Theme: Hunger
Project: Meechum a Wat: Supporting Indigenous Food Sovereignty on the Land
Kitchener, ON
mcc.org

For over 100 years, MCC has shared God’s love and compassion for all through relief, development, and peace. This grant will augment the Meechum a Wat program, supporting Indigenous sovereignty on the land by providing a bundle of practical supplies to equip individuals to pursue traditional food gathering techniques such as hunting, fishing, and trapping. The kit comes in a canvas bag and includes essential items such as a fishing rod, snare, hatchet, snow shoes, mess kit, tarp, and more.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Hunger
Project: Getting Started
Waterloo, ON
waterloowayside.org

Waterloo Wayside Centre supports and build community by providing safe places and opportunities to share and connect. This grant will help enhance Waterloo Wayside’s visibility in the community and purchase fresh produce and fruit for those who rely on their programs.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Hunger
Project: Street Outreach Nutrition Program
Guelph, ON
facebook.com/downtownguelphfolks

Volunteer-led and youth-driven, Your Downtown Guelph Friends unites to build a stronger, more compassionate community through street outreach, filling in the gaps when traditional services are closed. This grant will help provide hot meals, emergency food hampers, and basic necessities to those in greatest need.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Hunger
Project: Nightly Drop-In Program
Leamington, ON
leamingtonhopecentre.ca

The Leamington Community Hope Centre offers a wide variety of social programs to people in need in the Leamington community. This grant will offset the costs of their Nightly Drop-in Program which serves a hot meal to community members 365 days per year.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Hunger
Project: Summer Snax
Fergus, ON
communityresourcecentre.org

The Community Resource Centre of North and Centre Wellington is a community benefit agency with programs designed to fill the gaps in community service and bring neighbours together. This grant will help fund the Summer Snax program, providing 450 children and youth with needed nutrition over the nine weeks that school is out for the summer.

$10,000 grant
Theme: Mental Health
Project: Mental Health Counselling for the Rural Working Poor
New Hamburg, ON
interfaithcounselling.ca

Interfaith Counselling Centre strengthens the fabric of their community by equipping individuals, couples, and families to realize their emotional wellness and triumph over life’s challenges. This grant will offset the costs of services for low-income working clients who do not qualify for the fully funded programs but cannot afford to full fee.

$9,231.00 grant
Theme: Mental Health
Project: the Pathways to Peace: Art and Mental Wellness for Refugee Youth
Kitchener, ON
receptionhouse.ca

Reception House specializes in supporting government-assisted refugees in Waterloo region with tailored programs and services designed to aid in their resettlement and integration into the local community. This grant will support the Pathways to Peace: Art and Mental Wellness for Refugee Youth project wich addresses mental health by providing refugee youth with a creative and therapeutic outlet to process and express their experiences.

$7,975 grant
Theme: Mental Health
Project: Thriving at Work: Building Skilla for Resilience and Success
Aylmer, ON
mcson.org

Mennonite Community Services of Southern Ontario advocates for the integration of newcomers while faithfully linking community resources. This grant will support the Thriving at Work program, offering training to staff to rebuild their confidence and mental capacity to face the difficult challenges faced when working in the social service sector, including de-escalation skills in responding to mental illness in the community.