Fall Grant Recipients Announced

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – A local grant provider announced the recipients of their fall grant cycle.

The J.W. & M.H. Straker Charitable Foundation awarded $200,000 dollars to 20 area organizations that serve to improve the lives of Muskingum County residents.

“We wanted today to highlight three of our recipients. People often ask me, how do we choose our recipients and how do we make our decisions? So I just wanted to give a cross section of three, in particular, that we chose for this grant cycle. And each one of them will talk about their projects,” Straker Foundation President Susan Holdren said.

Foodworks Alliance received fifty-five hundred and 29 dollars to support their ‘Wastey to Tastey’ program that provides women in recovery programs with employable skills, while helping to feed hungry people locally. 

“What people don’t know is we have a Recovery with a Purpose program, which is a workforce re-entry training program for women in recovery. They are the people who are doing the ‘Wastey to Tastey’ program. So they take produce from the Mid-Ohio Foodbank but it’s also coming from Urban Greens gardens and I’ve just been talking to the garden coordinator here and we may start to get some produce from this particular community garden, that’s Zanesville community school. And we turn that produce into the side dishes and ingredients for places like Christ’s Table, Salvation Army and TruLight Ministries, which are all local soup kitchens,” Foodworks Alliance Executive Director Amy F. Aurore said.

The Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department was granted six thousand and 36 dollars for programs they hold to help the less fortunate.

“The Straker Grant, we are very grateful to have, we are able to expand some of our programs and invent some programs. We have the U-Matter bags that we do each year with our Hope-Givers to an outreach. And that reaches a multiple variety of people in our community. We will also be able to expand on our Literacy For A Change program, which includes students in elementary school and in preschools. And many of the teachers love this program in our county,” ZMCHD Behavioral Specialist Kris Headley said.

The Straker Foundation awarded Zanesville City Schools a twelve and a half thousand dollar grant to support their Agri-Park program, which networks with others in the community to teach an agriculturally based, alternative curriculum.   

“The Zanesville City Schools Agri-Park has been in use for about 6 years now. We have a Junior Class of Conservation Science, a Senior Class of Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture. So the curriculum is developed through the Sportsman’s Alliance and it focuses on outdoor sports and how we can responsible practice those and how they support the community as a whole,” Zanesville High School Science Teacher Heather Near said.

Straker Foundation President Susan Holdren noted that for 2025, the institution is on track to have awarded Muskingum County registered 501-c3 organizations $6 Million dollars by year’s end. 

Organizations receiving August 2025 grants include the following:
• Allwell Behavioral Health; $15,000.00 toward purchase of truck for CORE programs;
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Appalachian Ohio; $15,000.00 to initiate two teen programs;
• The Carr Center; $8,855.00 to support Safety Town;
• Foodworks Alliance; $5,529.23 to support the ‘Wastey Tastey’ program
• Harrison Township; $13,832.00 to fence its recently renovated play space;
• The John and Annie Glenn Museum; $3,940.00 for interstate way-finding;
• Muskingum County History; $3,000.00 for consultation and signage;
• Perry Township Fire Department; $14,970.00 for rescue struts and related equipment;
• Philo Youth League Baseball; $10,078.01 for ball field upgrades and safety enhancements;
• Pleasant Grove Church; $7,797.21 to repair a classroom ceiling;
• Putnam Presbyterian Church; $3,050.00 for technology upgrades;
• South Zanesville Fire Department; $15,000.00 for a LIFEPAK 15 cardio monitor/defibrillator;
• Tri-Valley Joint Fire Department; $6,960.00 for a struts stabilization system;
• Tri-Valley Youth League Softball; $8,517.63 for field enhancements;
• Warriors to Wilderness: $3,748.63 for outdoor structure materials;
• West Muskingum Band Boosters; $12,699.00 for new timpani equipment;
• Zane Grey Intermediate School; $14,722.60 for school library furniture and supplies;
• The Zanesville Muskingum County Health Department; $6,036.37 to support U Matter Bags, the Community Impact Alliance, and an education/destigmatization initiative;
• The Zanesville Civic League Community Center; $2960.71 to help launch its ‘Giving Corner’;
• Zanesville High School; $12,500.00 to support the Agripark program.