tales of travel

The impact of COVID-19 is felt by all of us, but there are organizations, industries and nonprofits that are especially hard-hit during these challenging times. ATJ Foundation would like to recognize the following three local nonprofits by donating $1,000 to their noble causes and missions.

Colorado No Kid Hungry, a partnership with Hunger Free Colorado, seeks to end hunger, connect local residents to food resources and influence policy changes to support these causes. The No Kid Hungry program has 460 million meals nationally to children in need, including several million in Colorado alone. The campaign has expanded access to school breakfast and after school meals, along with free summertime meals for the state’s most vulnerable youth. Through its nutrition education programs, it has also provided thousands of local families with the skills to prepare healthy and affordable meals.

Founded by parents of Sophie Feder Rosenberg shortly after her diagnosis of multicentric carpotarsal osteolysis (MCTO), a rare and crippling genetic disorder, Sophie’s Neighborhood was formed as a nonprofit dedicated to research, development of a treatment and cure, advocacy and fundraising. Given the small sample of people identified as having this disease, funding for research and treatment has been virtually non-existent.

No other industry has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic more than the restaurant and hospitality industries. The Colorado Restaurant Association has established a restaurant worker relief fund that provides grants to restaurant workers of independently owned restaurants in Colorado. The fund prioritizes those who have been diagnosed with coronavirus, quarantined, unable to receive government assistance and have become unemployed or furloughed.