Insurance provider Kaiser Permanente (KP) has approved more than $11 million in grants and donations in the second quarter of 2009 that will be handed out to more than 700 nonprofit agencies across the country.
A majority of the donations will be put towards groups and initiatives related to improving health and wellness through proper dieting and medical care, particularly for those who may be struggling financially.
Among the food-related donations is a $150,000 grant to the Food Research and Action Center in Washington, D.C. to make food stamp and school meal programs more available to those who need them. A $275,000 grant to two high schools making up the DeKalb County School System in Atlanta, Georgia will also be awarded to create a wellness program for its students and staff consisting of a new fitness center and improved health education and programs outside of school hours.
Regarding medical care, $300,000 was awarded to Operation Access, a nonprofit organization that enables free outpatient surgeries and surgical consultation for uninsured individuals. As part of the grant the organization will be able to utilize operating and procedure rooms at select KP medical centers. The company also spread $1.7 million in grants to five different nursing programs that will be given out over the next five years.
"We want our communities to emerge from this economic crisis in good health," said Raymond J. Baxter, the senior vice president of Kaiser Permanente’s Community Benefit for Research and Health Policy.
"Especially in tough times, access to healthy foods, health care and educational opportunities that will result in more highly qualified health professionals serving those in need are critical to creating and sustaining healthy communities," he added.
In addition to the continued rise in unemployment, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently stated may not hit its "peak" until the second half of 2010, according to Bloomberg, a recent survey of human resource managers and benefits administrators by Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company found half of the respondents reporting that the economy had forced their employer to adjust its benefits package.