100 Women Who Care - Starkville

We will vote March 7th at noon at La Quinta Inn in Starkville. Join us! Here are the applications for 2025:

United We Read and Feed: Kiwanis Club requests $2,000 for children’s books to distribute to teachers and bulk-ordered food for the local food pantries. For the past several years, over 8,000 books per year have been given away, including over 5,000 books for children! Although a nominally steady supply of books for adult readers is readily obtained from various sources, as mentioned previously, children’s books are often in short supply and must be purchased through monetary donations or grants.

EmpowerHER Starkville Initiative: Black Girls Rock of MS, Inc. requests $3,200 for the 4M project, focusing on mental health, mentorship, mini-grant opportunities, and menstrual hygiene equity. This program aims to provide necessary hygiene supplies and empower and educate the community. Proper menstrual hygiene practices can prevent infections, boost confidence, and contribute to better physical and mental health. Lack of access to menstrual hygiene products and facilities can lead to absenteeism in school and work. Girls and women may miss out on education and employment opportunities due to menstrual-related challenges.

Wood to Frame 63 Dudley Lane: Habitat for Humanity requests $4,000 in funds to purchase the wood necessary to build the frame of the house this spring at 63 Dudley Lane. Chiquita Brown and her son, Kahlil, will call 63 Dudley Lane home. Chiquita works for Aramark at Mississippi State University.

Babysitter Certification Program: OSERVS requests $1500 to cover all OCH and OSERVS training fees, participant materials, and lunch for the participants.

Full Steam Ahead: Friends of the Starkville Public Library requests $2,232.11 for the teen library program. The goal is to provide a diverse population of teens in Oktibbeha County with a STEAM program of events designed to engage teens in the exploration of STEAM concepts as well as expose them to careers in the STEAM field, creating a lifelong love of learning about STEAM and how these concepts impact students’ mental well-being and resiliency.

Youth Spring Job Fair: Friends of J. L. King requests $3,500. Last year, we hosted a spring break job and internship fair that was a big success! We helped upwards of 25-30 job seekers find employment in the Starkville area. While last year went well, we want to go even bigger and better this year. The project will be a one-to-one job application assistance program where workers will be direct with potential job hunters in locating, applying for, and following up on employment opportunities in the area.

Mental Health Therapy: Community Counseling Services requests $5,000 to provide mental health therapy for uninsured residents of Oktibbeha County. Most private practices do not do pro bono work for counseling. Our agency receives some grant funding from the Department of Mental Health each year for free mental health therapy, but because this is so needed in our area, we run out of funding quickly. We’ve already run out for this grant period, and it won’t be refunded until July. For this reason, we are requesting a grant from your organization that will allow us to continue providing care for individuals with no insurance and no ability to pay out of pocket.

Second Servings: Turning Surplus Into Sustenance: Starkville Strong requests $5,000 for the Second Servings program. We connect surplus food from local food donors with individuals who need it most. In just nine months, we’ve rescued over 26,000 meals that would have otherwise been wasted. But the need is growing, and with it, our capacity must expand. With funding, we can increase food recovery efforts, improve storage capacity, and strengthen distribution channels. This grant will help us scale our work so that no mother in Starkville has to choose between paying rent and feeding her children, and at the same time, allow community members to ‘Plate it Forward’.