Cooper Health Receiving $4.2M To Help With COVID Relief

Cooper University Healthcare has received more than $4.2 million in grants to help its coronavirus response and feed hungry children.

The healthcare system received $4,250,957.34 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support its response to and recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker today announced.

It also received a $25,000 grant from No Kid Hungry to help address childhood hunger and decrease food insecurity in young children.

The FEMA money was part of $43,391,818.73 dedicated to helping hospitals respond to the pandemic across the state, the senators said. After Menendez’s years-long push to reform how FEMA responds to disasters, last month the agency answered his call to eliminate the cost-sharing requirements for disaster grants.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched our state’s resources thin, but with the elimination of local cost-sharing and this additional federal funding, our state will be able to more quickly recover from the impacts of this pandemic,” Menendez said. “This additional funding will ensure our communities, health care providers, and first responders have the resources they need to protect the health and safety of all New Jerseyans.”

“While we have made significant progress since New Jersey first experienced the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we still have more work to do” Booker said. “As we continue on the path to recovery, I’m proud to announce another round of federal grant money that will support our state’s communities, hospitals, and frontline workers, providing them with the resources they need to continue the fight against the health crisis.”

In May, Menendez led bipartisan legislation to eliminate cost-share payments required of states and communities included in federal disaster declarations in 2020. He also led bipartisan requests from both the New Jersey congressional delegation and his Senate colleagues calling on the president to completely eliminate the local cost-sharing for FEMA disaster grants. Sen. Booker joined him in those efforts.

The following grants were awarded:

• Borough of Paramus: $1,283,046.28
• Cooper University Hospital: $4,250,957.34
• N.J. Office of Emergency Management: $29,410,014.15
• Port Authority of New York and New Jersey: $2,487,183.18
• Saint Peter's University Hospital: $1,381,173.58
• Virtua: $4,579,444.20

No Kid Hungry, a campaign from the national nonprofit Share Our Strength, has invested $3 million in grants to organizations focused on early childhood to help decrease food insecurity among children under the age of six.

“Cooper is proud to be a part of this initiative to support families in need in our community,” says April Douglass-Bright, MD, Division Head, General Pediatrics at the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper. “This grant will allow us to help meet the nutritional needs of our patients, which is crucial to good health.”

Cooper said it will use that money to provide fresh produce to families in its current patient population who have children ages five and younger or those enrolled in a Head Start program.

Along with the weekly produce distribution, participating families will qualify for supermarket shopping tours and nutrition classes along with supermarket gift cards. The grant will also cover transportation costs for Camden families to shop at full service stores located in the surrounding suburbs.

According to studies, at one point during the past year, 40 percent of parents of kids under six reported job or income loss related to the coronavirus pandemic. More than one in five parents reported food insecurity in their household. Early childhood is the most intensive period of brain and body development, and hunger and hardship at this age can have long-term implications for children.

The No Kid Hungry grants will serve more than 120 early child care centers, healthcare providers and community organizations. These organizations work with an estimated 170,000 children under the age of five in 34 states and the District of Columbia, including at Cooper University Health Care in Camden.

“Food insecurity in the early years can have an immediate and lasting impact on overall health, learning, school readiness, and behavior,” said Caron Gremont, Director of Early Childhood for the No Kid Hungry campaign. “These flexible, year-long grants will help organizations provide healthy food to young kids and their families at this critical time.”