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Three Forest Grove groups each won $15,000 from the city: the backpack program that sends weekend food home with students, the district's Family Resource Center and Gg's House.

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The Forest Grove Backpack Program, the Forest Grove School District's Family Resource Center and Gg's House have each won a $15,000 grant from the city of Forest Grove. Forest Grove announced the three Community Enhancement Program (CEP) grants, $45,000 in all, on Oct. 13. A city committee picked them from 11 applications, according to the city's announcement. Metro, the Portland-area regional government, pays the money to the city based on fees for each ton of solid waste collected at the Forest Grove Transfer Station, according to the city's program page. The groups will be paid in January 2027, pending signed agreements, the page said. Many students in the district rely on free breakfast and lunch during the week but may not have enough to eat on weekends, according to the backpack program's application. Each week its volunteers shop, pick up donations, pack bags of food and snacks and deliver them to 13 schools, where counselors hand them out, the application said. In the 2025-26 school year, the program handed out 4,382 weekend food bags and served as many as 168 students, the application said. It has delivered 678 bags in the first six weeks of this school year, Danielle Wentworth, one of the program's board members, told the committee. "Our goal is to serve every student in need this year and not have to limit how many children are fed like we had to do during a portion of last school year due to budget restrictions," Wentworth said. Alice Custodio, who had run the backpack program since 2014, stepped down last year, Wentworth said. A group of volunteers who have worked with the program for four years now runs it as its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit, according to the application. Forest Grove Elks Lodge No. 2440, which ran the program with Custodio, still donates a room in its building, along with electricity and garbage and recycling service, the application said. In each of the last two rounds, the lodge received a $20,000 CEP grant for the weekend food program, according to the city. Donations to the program come from an Amazon wish list, local food drives, churches and businesses, the application said. Gg's House donates to the program several times a year, it said. District students and families facing financial hardship can get food, hygiene items, clothing, shoes and school supplies from the Family Resource Center, according to the center's grant slides. Counselors and other school staff refer families to the center, the slides said. "The need in our community is huge, especially with what is going on lately," Erika Diaz Tofaeono, the district's family resource coordinator, told the committee. "We are seeing families already not wanting to come out, so we are starting to deliver now more food boxes." Last year the center gave direct help to 340 families and holiday help to 397 students, she said. She applies for grants, asks for donations and sends letters to Forest Grove businesses at the start of each school year, she said. "I don't get funded through the school district," Diaz Tofaeono said. David Warner, the district's director of communications and engagement, said in an email that the center is at the Cornelius Elementary School, 200 N. 14th Ave., and is open to all district families. Families can go through their school counselors or contact Diaz Tofaeono at 503-359-2500, ext. 5530, or familyresource@fgsd.k12.or.us, he said. People can donate hygiene items or canned food directly to the center, Warner said. Gg's House, at 1714 Pacific Ave., makes individualized care kits for people going through stress, grief or crisis, according to its application. It has also provided bus tickets, paid for funerals, supplied materials for crisis-related cleanup, covered electric bills and helped with schooling costs, the application said. "Our approach is simple: we do the next right thing for each person in front of us," the application said. "The $15,000 may be used for something as small as a bus pass for someone trying to get to counseling, or as significant as assisting with suicide-related cleanup after the loss of a loved one." Gg's House expects 100 to 200 Forest Grove residents to benefit, according to its application. It was the group's second application for a CEP grant, and it did not get one the first time, the application said.