FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Meyers Trust awards National Relief Charities $50,000 for Native American food services.

Aug 23, 2009, Sherman, TX (PR.com) — The Melba Bayer Meyers Charitable Trust (Meyers Trust) assists charities that are devoted to the needs of indigent Native Americans and children and whose charitable projects lead to humanitarian relief in Native American communities.

The Meyers Trust recently awarded $50,000 to National Relief Charities (NRC) for their extensive work in Indian country and their strong results with the Meyers grant of 2008. NRC provides year-round services on poverty-stricken reservations. After learning what NRC accomplished with last year’s $30,000 grant, the Meyers Trust invited NRC to re-apply this year.

The charitable trust set up by Meyers meshes neatly with NRC’s mission of helping American Indians improve the quality of their lives and bring about positive changes in their communities. NRC serves mainly Elders and children in need. In the last year, 20 reservation programs recognized NRC for its service to the Indian people. Continuation of the Meyers grant does the same.

NRC President Shannon Albert says, “The generous Meyers grant is a relief. Over the last year, NRC has seen a tremendous increase in requests for service, and the need related to food and food insecurity among American Indians is staggering.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines “food insecurity” to include resource constraints leading to serious problems such as the family suffering hunger, or being unable to purchase a balanced diet or enough food for their children, or the parents skipping meals so the children can eat. The combination of spiraling food costs, and nearly 1 in 4 American Indian households lacking enough food to meet their basic needs, takes a serious toll on the health and well being of Native Americans.

Albert added that last year NRC spent over $5 million on food and food services. “With the grant from the Melba Bayer Meyers Trust, we’ll be able to enhance our food services and offset the rising need.” Examples of how the Meyers grant will help NRC aid Native Americans include: provisions to rural reservation food banks, distribution of fresh and frozen produce in remote reservation communities where such products are unaffordable or inaccessible, and rotation of senior centers that feed Elders off the waiting list for monthly food staples.

National Relief Charities is a nonprofit dedicated to quality of life for American Indians living on remote, poverty-stricken reservations. NRC has been serving Native Americans for 20 years and is supported by a strong network of reservation partners. NRC works on over 75 reservations year-round. For more information, visit www.nativepartnership.org.

This release can also be viewed at http://www.pr.com/press-release/173682.

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