Monroe County awards $190K in Sophia Travis grants to 42 nonprofits, community groups
Monroe County Council unanimously awarded $190,000 in Sophia Travis grants to 42 nonprofits, funding food aid, shelter, youth programs, arts education, rent help, transportation, CPR training and tech upgrades. Pantry 279 received the largest award of $13,000.
Chart by The B Square with information from Monroe County government.
The Monroe County Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to award $190,000 in Sophia Travis Community Services grants to 42 local nonprofit and community organizations.
The awards fund projects ranging from food assistance and emergency shelter to youth programming, arts education, rent help, transportation assistance, CPR training and nonprofit technology upgrades.
The largest award of $13,000 went to Pantry 279 for nutritional food for food-insecure families. Other top awards included $11,400 to Monroe County 4-H for livestock-sale meat processing for local hunger relief; $11,090 to Tandem for Tandem Essentials; $10,060 to First Presbyterian Church for the Bloomington Severe Winter Emergency Shelter; and $9,240 to Community Kitchen for essential food funding.
The county’s Sophia Travis grant program supports social service agencies and nonprofit organizations. For 2026, the county budgeted $190,000 for the program. Unadjusted for inflation that’s twice as much as the county budgeted in 2008. This year’s awards push the total distributed since 2008 to $2.37 million.
In 2013, the community services grant program was renamed in honor of Sophia Travis, who served on the county council from 2004 to 2008. The resolution renaming the program says that Travis worked as a councilor to “assure the applications for the limited funds available for support would be considered in a fair, even-handed and transparent process.”
Under the county’s process, applications were reviewed by a committee made up of county councilors Jennifer Crossley, Liz Feitl and Trent Deckard, along with Monroe County residents Julie Robertson and Katherine Hopkins. Applicants were invited to make presentations at a public meeting on May 13. The committee met May 29 to recommend the award amounts.
The approved awards are:
Final committee-recommended awards
Agency
Award
Project description
Pantry 279
$13,000
Nutritional Food for Food Insecure Families
Monroe County 4-H
$11,400
Monroe County 4-H Livestock Sale Meat Processing for Local Hunger Relief
Tandem
$11,090
Tandem Essentials
First Presbyterian Church
$10,060
Bloomington Severe Winter Emergency Shelter
Community Kitchen
$9,240
Food for All: Essential Food Funding
Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington
$8,600
Summer Field Trips
New Hope For Families
$7,400
New Hope Family Shelter Summer Camp
Sobremesa
$6,400
Increasing Locally Grown Nutritious Food
New Leaf New Life
$5,860
Stability in Motion: Rent assistance for sober living and transportation
First Christian Church
$5,600
Welcome Table Breakfast and Sunday Meal Program
Mother Hubbard's Cupboard
$5,500
MHC Education Programming
Amethyst House
$5,300
Residential Food
Stone Belt
$5,240
CPR/First Aid Training
Middle Way House (Collaborative)
$5,120
CPR Trainings
PALS
$5,100
Stable Futures After School Program
El Centro Comunal Latino
$5,000
Rent & Utility Assistance for Latino community members
Big Brothers Big Sisters
$4,900
Big & Little Adventure Connected: Print & App Tools
Girls Rock Bloomington
$4,900
Summer Camp
Susie's Place
$4,100
Susie's Place Internship Opportunities
Cancer Support Community
$4,020
Food & Transportation Assistance for Cancer Patients
Healing Hands
$3,800
Nourishing Neighbors Produce Project
Community Culture Inc
$3,420
Bob's Garden
Catholic Charities
$3,400
Affordable Therapy
Center For Sustainable Living
$3,140
Environmental Remediation & Safety Improvements for Community Greenhouse
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