Mississippi

BENTONVILLE, Ark., June 24, 2009 — The Walmart Foundation is donating $7.8 million to support food banks and provide healthy, summer meals to children who receive free or reduced-price lunches during the school year. Through partnerships with Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Feeding America, and local non-profits in the 10 states where children are most at risk of hunger, Walmart and its Foundation will help assure that their neighbors and those in local communities have access to nutritious food.

CHICAGO, June 9, 2009 — Today at AARP's 2009 Diversity and Aging Conference, the AARP Foundation announced a $1.1 million gift from the Harrah's Foundation to help current and former caregivers meet caregiving responsibilities while building their own long-term financial security.

LOS ANGELES — Television co-host and news correspondent Hoda Kotb and fashion designer Kay Unger will receive City of Hope’s top philanthropic honor, The Spirit of Life® Award, on Monday, May 4, at the Waldorf=Astoria, with top news media, fashion and entertainment leaders attending. Hosted by City of Hope’s East End Chapter/Jeanne Kaye League, the “Woman of the Year” luncheon will honor these two women who have made notable contributions to their professions, their community and to charitable causes. Kotb and Unger, both cancer survivors, are both staunch advocates for the medical advancement and treatment of cancer.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference hopes to mobilize 50,000 people in the Mississippi Delta this summer in a campaign to draw attention to the poverty of a region where some Americans still live in homes with dirt floors and brown water flows from their faucets.

In a webinar last month titled "Positioning for Wealth Transfer," Campbell & Company Vice President Bruce Matthews talked about the need for organizations to prepare programs that take full advantage of this boon.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, Mississippi-based Hope Haven found its entire complex submerged in 6 feet of water, leaving its buildings either water damaged or destroyed. Director Terry Latham says that while the organization, a 10-year-old shelter for abused and neglected children located about a mile- and-a-half from the Gulf of Mexico, had the money to fix the buildings, it also had 12 to 15 children to care for and no furniture.