The board of trustees of the Mazda Foundation on Wednesday announced the organization has awarded $450,000 to four entities as part of the foundation’s yearly grant giving, including two programs serving the Huntsville area.

Grants were awarded to the Food Bank of North Alabama and AVID Center (funding a program in Madison). Additional grantees outside the Yellowhammer State were the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County (Irvine, CA) and FUSE Studio (funding a program in Southern California).

“The awards we’re announcing today address challenges that too many Americans face,” stated Jeff Guyton, president of Mazda North American Operations and chairman of the Mazda Foundation (USA), Inc. “Those challenges range from basic food security to equal access to the building blocks of education. Everyone needs these fundamentals in order to thrive.”

According to a release, the “awards follow the Mazda Foundation’s guiding principle that what matters most is one another. Together, they seek to address not only the result of poverty, but also some of its many causes.”

The grants to the food banks aim to increase the delivery of food to families in serious need at a time that demand has skyrocketed, with recent estimates placing that increase at 60% since March 2020. The award to AVID will ensure underserved students have the opportunity not only to be admitted to college but to succeed once they arrive.

Huntsville, of course, is the location of the under-construction joint venture Mazda Toyota Manufacturing plant.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn