6.23.2008 - 11:37am ET

(CSRwire) NEW YORK, NY,.- June 23, 2008 - The Reader's Digest Foundation (RDF) announced today that it will donate $100,000 to Share Our Strength's Relief and Recovery Fund for New Orleans, a program focused on community recovery in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The grant will be used to address the city's unmet health care needs.

The grant to Share Our Strength, the fourth in the Foundation's $1 million Make it Matter program, was inspired by the selfless efforts of two local nurses, Alice Craft-Kerney and Patricia Berryhill, who returned to New Orleans after Katrina to find their homes uninhabitable and their jobs gone. Despite their circumstances, the two women spearheaded a desperately needed health clinic in the Lower 9th Ward, one of the areas hardest hit by the hurricane; Patricia even offered up her own damaged home as its site.

The clinic opened to the public on February 27, 2007; since then, it has treated more than 1,200 people for a variety of acute and chronic conditions, and now includes a part-time medical director, registered nurse and clerk. The remarkable story is featured in the July issue of Reader's Digest and is one example of the kind of recovery work that Share Our Strength supports in New Orleans.

"The strides made in the rebuilding of New Orleans are a testament to the tremendous efforts of organizations like Share Our Strength," said Susan Fraysse Russ, executive director, Reader's Digest Foundation. "We are proud to support their critical work. At the same time, we applaud the accomplishments of individuals like Alice Craft-Kerney and Patricia Berryhill; their story epitomizes the spirit of Make it Matter and, we hope, will inspire others to support their good works."

"Over the years, Share Our Strength has provided grants to more than 40 organizations working to end hunger and bring self-sufficiency to Gulf Coast families," says Billy Shore, Share Our Strength's founder and executive director. "Since Hurricane Katrina, the link between health and hunger has become even more obvious. The Lower 9th Ward Clinic provides desperately needed services to this community. We're proud to support the Clinic's work and that of other local organizations making sure the community gets the health and food services it needs."

Make it Matter is a program of RDF dedicated to creating opportunities and promoting efforts that encourage individuals to make a positive difference in their communities. RDF considers the public's stories of giving back and chooses one each month that embodies the RDF mission and serves as an inspiration to others. For each Make it Matter story, RDF will donate $100,000 to a nonprofit organization that furthers the cause. Submissions from the public can be directed to http://www.rd.com/foundation.

Reader's Digest magazine is lending its support to the Foundation's program by highlighting the stories of the selected individuals in its monthly "Make it Matter" column. Many of the submissions, including those that do not lead to a grant, will be featured on http://www.rd.com.

Submissions for Make it Matter will be accepted by the Foundation on a rolling basis throughout 2008.


About The Reader's Digest Foundation:
The Reader's Digest Foundation, started in 1938, is dedicated to creating opportunities and promoting efforts that encourage individuals to make a positive difference in their communities, and to supporting programs designed to help young people learn, grow and enrich their lives. RDF makes grants to nonprofit organizations to support the good works of individuals in their communities and to nonprofit partners focused on youth development and education. The Foundation also partners with nonprofits to create workplace opportunities for Reader's Digest Association employees to volunteer their time and share their expertise. To learn how you can support the Make it Matter program, please visit www.rd.com/foundation.


About Share Our Strength(R):
Share Our Strength(R) is a national organization working to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry. We weave together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch children at risk of hunger, and surround them with nutritious food where they live, learn and play. We work with the culinary industry to create engaging, pioneering programs like Share Our Strength's Restaurants for Relief(R) which mobilized thousands of restaurants across the country in a dine-around to raise funds for ongoing recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast region. To date, Share Our Strength has distributed more than $1.8 million in grants to provide food- and healthcare-related services in affected Gulf Coast areas.For more information, please visit www.strength.org.

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