BJ's Charitable Foundation distributed 87 grants totaling $723,200 to nonprofit organizations that provide basic needs such as food, self-sufficiency, health care services and education to children and families residing in the communities BJ's Wholesale Clubs serve.

"In light of the economy, our board of directors chose to put more emphasis on helping those in need," said Jessica Newman, Manager of Community Relations for BJ's Wholesale Club. "Our focus is to provide grants that provided hunger relief, self-sufficiency support, education and health care throughout the communities where we do business."

Below is a list by state of the 87 organizations that received grants through BJ's Charitable Foundation:

Connecticut
Capitol Child Development Center (Hartford) - $5,000 to purchase materials to maintain their creative curriculum including materials for literacy, science, math, sensory, dramatic play, multicultural and learning. Twenty-five children ages 3 months to 5 years will benefit.

Caroline House (Bridgeport) - $7,500 to provide mothers and their children a free education in English and life skills and nutrition supplements as well as to help pay the salaries of the teachers.

Leadership Education and Athletics Partnership (LEAP) (New Haven) - $10,000 to be used toward the Children's Program's and Youth Development Program's salaries for counselors and Leaders-In-Training as well as for program supplies to support enrichment activities and mentoring of New Haven's youth.

Malta House (Norwalk) - $5,000 to offset the costs of food and baby supplies for the one hundred homeless, pregnant, single women and mothers of young children who seek shelter, food and life management skills at the nonprofit.

Delaware
Lutheran Community Services (Wilmington) - $10,000 to help 50 families in the area pay for back rents, back mortgages, security deposits and basic home repairs.

Florida
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Broward County, Inc. (Fort Lauderdale) - $5,000 to recruit, screen, and train volunteers for the Big Brothers Big Sisters one-to-one mentoring program. Funding will go toward 25 new matches.

Catholic Charities (Jacksonville) - $10,000 to purchase food items for their grocery bags, which will feed 555 individuals in need. The organization provides one full grocery bag per person, per family, per week where each bag contains enough food to provide nine meals per person.

Children's Aid Club (Boca Raton) - $5,000 to benefit 55 individuals by helping to pay for food certificates, utilities such as power and water, rent, child care, diapers and wipes, insurance premiums, children's clothing and special therapies.

Children's Harbor, Inc. (Pembroke Pines) - $5,000 to purchase food for the 34 children living at the residential home, which provides a safe place for children who have been removed from their families due to abuse or neglect.

Christian HELP (Casselberry) - $5,000 to pay for gas and maintenance of two refrigerated vans that pick up food for clients, benefiting more than 6,000 unemployed individuals and their families.

Farmworkers' Childrens Council, Inc. (Ocean Ridge) - $4,000 to provide food and supplies for 80 students who attend the Help with Homework after school program. Children of farm laborers can participate in various activities, recreational trips and classes in a safe setting.

Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida (Fort Myers) - $10,000 to pay for the shipping of 880,000 pounds of food that will provide 704,000 meals to the needy in Southwest Florida.

Jewish Adoption and Foster Care Options (JAFCO) (Sunrise) - $10,000 to pay for emergency items such as clothing, food, shoes and medical care needed to keep 100 children a year safe from abuse and neglect in an emergency shelter until a more permanent home can be found.

Love and Hope Foundation, Inc. (Tampa) - $5,000 to hire bilingual, professionally- certified instructors and tutors as well as provide access to the media center and computer lab next summer for 480 children.

Nemours BrightStart! (Jacksonville) - $ 4,800 to provide three screening events in Jacksonville and Orange Park to provide age appropriate testing for early detection of dyslexia.

University of South Florida Foundation (Tampa) - $10,000 to help pay for medical equipment maintenance, upgrades and salary support for the nurse practitioner and the certified driver of the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile. The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile delivers health services to at risk children.

Georgia
Atlanta Enterprise Center (Atlanta) - $10,000 to fund the Family Affairs program. The program provides opportunities for self- sufficiency and personal responsibility for Atlanta's homeless and near homeless.

Avalon HOPE (McDonough) - $6,600 to purchase school supplies and backpacks for needy children ages 6 to 14 in Henry County.

Cobb County Senior & Homeless Service, Inc. (Marietta) - $5,000 to help fund community services including education, safety and health programs, as well as, aid in hunger, homelessness and disaster relief programs, to benefit approximately 200-500 senior citizens living in the area that are in need of assistance.

Girls Inc. of Greater Atlanta (Atlanta) - $5,000 to support the Friendly PEERsuasion Program, which provides girls with positive leadership and peer relationship skills and strategies that, will give them a strong foundation in communication, decision making, and assertiveness.

Girls on the Run Forsyth (Suwannee) - $5,300 to pay for 50% of the entire program costs associated with advertising, coach training, internet upkeep, and race and site supplies. Approximately 450 girls, grades 3 through 5, participate in this experimental learning opportunity where life lessons are taught while training for a 5k run/walk celebration.

Latin American Association (Atlanta) - $10,000 for support of a case worker in The Urgent Care Program, which serves approximately 4,000 people per year. The case worker will provide screening for 583 individuals in need and provide housing support to approximately 400 people.

Open Hand (Atlanta) - $10,000 to provide food, packaging and distribution of 1541 meals as well as nutrition education for children of sick low-income parents. Education includes presentations, meal packaging with educational labels and their "Healthy Youth" newsletter.

Maine
Community Concepts Inc. (Auburn) - $10,000 to be used for mileage reimbursement to pay for gas, as well as vehicular maintenance in order for volunteers to provide transportation to counseling and medical appointments, for their Homeless/Veterans Transportation Program.

Maryland
Human Services Programs of Carroll County, Inc. (Westminster) - $15,000 will be used to cover the costs of food, supplies, and other program expenses for providing services for client’s in their emergency women's shelter.

Southern Maryland Food Bank, Catholic Charities (Washington, D.C.) - $10,000 to support overall program expenses for the Southern Maryland Food Bank, which provides food at $.18/pound to 35 member agencies in the Tri-County region of Southern Maryland. This year the food bank's member agencies will distribute food to 22,000 families in the region.

Massachusetts
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Lowell (Lowell) - $5,000 to fund recruiting, training and screening of volunteers to create 40 community-based matches and 25 new school matches for at risk youths with mentors.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters (Boston) - $10,000 to support their Street Outreach and Mobile Medical Van Programs. The Street Outreach Team travels in the Mobile Medical Vans nightly to provide free medical services, referrals, health education and advice to young people on the streets of Boston and Cambridge.

Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) (Dorchester) - $10,000 to pay for skills based curricula workbooks, games, multicultural children's books, transportation and admission to educational institutions, closing ceremony expenses and event food Approximately 800 scholars will benefit from this grant during the summer program designed to increase academic achievement.

Center for Women & Enterprise (Boston) - $5,000 to provide a portion of the cost for the entrepreneurial training of 1,107 low-income women; providing education opportunities that strengthens families in Boston and Worcester, MA.

Father Bills & MainSpring (Quincy) - $15,000 toward case management salary for Housing First for Families Program. The Program stabilizes 52 families with housing, moving families out of shelters and into their own homes. Last year, Father Bills & MainSpring served 2,452 individuals in shelter and housing programs.

Friday Night Supper Program (Boston) - $10,000 to purchase food, kitchen and servicing supplies and basic clothing and toiletry necessities to provide to their guests. Every Friday night the program serves 150 guests from all areas of the city a three course nutritious meal.

Friends of the Children"“Boston (Boston) - $10,000 to expand and improve the current mentoring program; with mentor recruitment, training salaries, achiever selection, supplies and community service events.

Haley House Inc. (Boston) - $5,000 to pay for teacher salaries, ingredients for meals, location fees for rent and utilities, janitorial services and various supplies for the Take Back the Kitchen program. The program teaches cooking, nutrition and healthy lifestyle education for at-risk children and their families.

Horizons for Homeless Children (Roxbury) - $10,000 to support teacher salaries, educational supplies and materials for the classrooms and transportation for the children to and from the shelters and Community Children Centers, where full time child are and early education is provided to 175 young homeless preschool-aged children.

Julie's Family Learning Program (Boston) - $10,000 to towards the overall funding of the program, committed to breaking the circle of poverty among low income, at risk families by providing services that enable mothers and their children to become healthy, responsible and economically self-sufficient members of their communities.

MetroWest Outreach Connection, Inc. (Framingham) - $10,000 to support approximately 12 families in their Homeless Prevention Program. Last year, 129 households were helped by the program.

Middlesex Human Service Agency (Waltham) - $10,000 to help fund the Bristol Lodge Soup Kitchen. The Kitchen provides supper daily to between 60-110 people.

Project Just Because Inc. (Hopkinton) - $10,000 to fund its Back to School program that provides low income children with full backpacks of items such as clothing, sneakers, school and art supplies.

Project Smile (Hopedale) - $5,000 to buy program supplies such as stuffed animals, coloring books and small toys that help comfort children in Operation Smile. This will ensure that emergency responders in this region will have immediate access to comfort items for children involved in traumatic events.

Rachel's Table (Worcester) - $10,000 to help support the purchase of milk for the Children's Milk Fund and the purchase of individual servings of food for the HOAP, which is an agency that helps the homeless in Worcester

Southeast Regional Network Inc. (New Bedford) - $5,000 to help approximately 225 individuals who have expenses to be paid while food stamps and welfare checks arrive. Those expenses include diapers and formula, prescriptions, bus tickers to medical appointments and job interviews and grocery gift cards.

The Family Pantry Corporation (Harwich) - $7,000 to provide food for twenty two families monthly for one year through the pantry.

The Forsyth Institute (Boston) - $7,500 to help 500 children from Revere and Hyannis receive oral healthcare through Forsyth Kids Cavity Prevention Program. In addition, funds will pay a portion of the salary of the hygienist, travel expenses to schools, and dental supplies.

The Home for Little Wanderers (Boston) - $10,000 to go towards program costs including recreational and educational supplies and staff time for the Baird Center, a continuum of care that includes a residential treatment program, a group home and a school that provides therapeutic and educational services to behaviorally and academically challenged boys.

The South Shore YMCA (Quincy) - $5,000 to support the Girl Power program, which helps girls realize their highest potential though a comprehensive curriculum focused on physical and mental health, academic achievement and the development of positive leadership skills. 57 girls are enrolled in the program and will be impacted by the grant.

YMCA of Greater Westfield Inc. (Westfield) - $3,000 to assist in providing "camperships" at Camp Shepherd next summer to children and youth whose families can not afford the cost of these programs.

New Hampshire
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Nashua (Nashua) - $5,000 to support the costs of their school based one-to-one mentoring program, which focuses on youth development and educational assistance.

Greater Manchester Family YMCA (Manchester) - $5,000 will be used to help fund student scholarships for their Truancy Alternative Program (TAP). TAP is the only program in Manchester for youth who are not attending school due to suspension, expulsion or truancy. TAP offers students continuity of school work and interaction with caring adults.

New Jersey
Feeding America (NJ) - $30,000 will be divided among the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, the Food Bank of South Jersey, and the Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties in an effort to improve public access to the government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Isaiah House Inc. (East Orange) - $12,000 to purchase food for their pantry in order to provide baskets to an additional 150 families per month. The funds will also allow the organization to help purchase items for children, such as, toiletries and clothing that are not covered by food stamps.

Literacy Volunteers of Somerset County (Bridgewater) - $5,000 to increase the organization’s capacity to provide free, one-to-one, and small group tutoring to functionally illiterate adults.

NJ SEEDS (Newark) - $7,500 will offset the cost of room and board for the high-achieving, low-income students in the College Preparatory Program during the summer. The students live in dorms on a college campus for two weeks while attending classes for English, Math, Social Studies and Science.

Pass it Along (Sparta) - $10,000 to help feed the hungry while providing teens with volunteering experience for its Ma's Meals and Interfaith Programs. Ma's Meals gives families the opportunity to learn cooking and budgeting skills. The Interfaith Program is a program where volunteers cook and serve a balanced meal to families and individuals who are homeless.

Sonrise Development Corporation (Englewood) - $10,000 will go towards finishing a home that will hold a maximum of six families at a time, and serve as an 18-month transition home for homeless women and children.

Youth Consultation Service (Hackensack) - $5,000 will be used for the Southern Region Mentoring Program for children involved with the Gloucester County juvenile court system, while paying for mentor-child activities such as, admission to sporting events, museums and recreational venues, as well as materials and supplies.

New York
AIDS Council of Northeastern New York (Albany) - $5,000 to fund their Emergency Financial Assistance Program, providing clients with emergency assistance to prevent them from becoming homeless, without food, or stranded without transportation to attend medically necessary appointments.

Hispanic Counseling Center (Hempstead) - $10,000 will go towards the salaries of the bilingual, bicultural, part-time tutors in the Teen Drop-In Center, which is a free, safe and supervised place for recreation and learning during after school and evening hours.

Island Harvest (Mineola) - $10,000 to fuel, maintain and operate a fleet of seven trucks for pick-up and delivery, and to fund the recruitment and training of volunteers in their food rescue and delivery program.

Literacy Nassau (Hempstead) - $10,000 will be used in support of a literacy tutor training workshop to train about 25-30 tutors who help illiterate adults with reading, writing, and speaking English.

New Alternatives for Children (New York) - $10,000 to pay a portion of NAC's Resource Specialist and Community Liaison Position as well as various necessities needed in order to make the food pantry run smoothly. NAC serves children with physical disabilities and/or chronicle illness and their families living in the NYC area.

Queens Library Foundation (Jamaica) - $10,000 will be used in support for BOOST (Best Out of School Time) after school program, which serves about 2,000 children daily and helps them with homework and provides them with many enrichment activities.

Safe Horizon (New York) - $10,000 to purchase emergency food for their pantry and food vouchers, benefiting approximately 89 mothers and 113 children, who turn to Safe Horizon in the event of domestic violence.

Schenectady Inner City Ministry (Schenectady) - $15,000 to purchase food for their Emergency Food Program, Summer Lunch and other educational programs, benefiting low income children and families. Last year the Emergency Food program provided 339,489 meals to 37,721 people.

St. John the Baptist Parish (Brooklyn) - $5,000 to restock their food pantry, serving more than 1,500 people in need.

The Children's Center (Bronx) - $10,000 will provide two stipends for tutors and for food in support of children and adolescents affected by HIV/AIDS in its’ after school and summer program.

WAIT House (Glens Falls) - $10,000 to provide case management services to youth who are residents of the emergency shelter. The Case Manager provides tutoring, life skills, counseling and assistance with transportation and recreational activities, to approximately 95 youths.

Washington Heights-Inwood Coalition Inc (New York) - $10,000 purchase supplies for its' youth program, and to pay for stipends for young people who mediate disputes in their school or who work as coaches and officials in neighborhood sports leagues.

Watervliet Civic Chest Inc (Watervliet) - $2,500 will be used to purchase new computers and computer equipment for their homework help program to assist children with their academics.

YWCA of the Mohawk Valley (Utica) - $5,000 to support the Willow Commons transitional housing facility for women and children faced with domestic abuse. The Willow Commons anticipates 32 residents in 2009.

North Carolina
Davidson Housing Coalition (Davidson) - $10,000 to cover the costs of materials used in emergency home repairs and professional labor fees for the HAMMERS program, which targets low-income residents who own and occupy their homes.

Florence Crittenton Services (Charlotte) - $5,000 will be used to support their programs that promote healthy babies and self-sufficient families, while covering the cost of food, the cost of transportation so their clients can attend vocational appointments and pick up their children at child care, as well as, paying for in-house opportunities to work.

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle (Raleigh) - $15,000 to cover the costs of transportation, staffing, and food for their BackPack Buddies Program, which provides children who rely on free or reduced school lunches with a backpack filled with food for six meals and two snacks to take home on the weekends.

Ohio
Domestic Violence Project, Inc. (Canton) - $10,000 for the provision of counseling and youth prevention and education services, supporting the Community Education program, Renew Counseling and Recovery Center. The Domestic Violence Project provides emergency shelter, legal advocacy and counseling to victims of domestic violence and their children regardless of their ability to pay.

YMCA of Greater Cleveland (Cleveland) - $5,000 to go towards 8-15 scholarships for economically disadvantaged families who are unable to afford the full cost of childcare.

Pennsylvania
Center for Humanistic Change, Inc. (Bethlehem) - $4,000 to pay Second Harvest of the Lehigh Valley to defray the costs of providing and transporting food for the Backpack Buddies program monthly for one year. The remaining funds will be applied to the salary of the Community School Coordinator, who manages the program and helps children not go hungry on weekends, while not in school.

Endow-A-Home (Philadelphia) - $5,000 to benefit 37 head-of-household women and their 115 children who are moving from homelessness to home ownership with help from the program. Funds will support enrichment outings for the teens and women, supplies, booklets, handouts for the life skills workshops, refreshments for the workshops and meetings and awards and incentives.

Freedom Valley YMCA (Phoenixville) - $10,000 to pay for transportation for their Y-Achievers teen program, 10 weeks afterschool busing for Homework Helpers participants and scholarship funding so that five children can participate in the nine month Homework Helpers program.

Philabundance (Philadelphia) - $15,000 to purchase fresh produce that will be distributed to the sites that combined serve more than 5,500 households and more than 3,000 individuals a week. The Fresh For All program serves low income families and individuals who do not have local access to food cupboards or other local hunger relief agencies.

Pinnacle Health System (Harrisburg) - $10,000 to offset the salaries of child interview specialists, medical professionals and supplies of the Children's Resource Center, which provides medical evaluations and treatment to children suspected of being abused.

The Employment Skills Center (Carlisle) - $10,000 to fund instructor wages and program expenses like books, background checks, test fees, uniforms and student incentives of gas and food cards. The program trains and educates 90 clients to help
them become more employable, productive and self-sufficient community members.

Visiting Nurse Association Community Services (Abington) - $10,000 to provide funding for a portion of 5,000 primary well and sick care visits to children and their families in need; as well as health promotion and disease prevention services for 2,778 people ages newborn to 21.

Rhode Island
Central Falls Family Self-Sufficiency Foundation (Central Falls) - $5,000 to impact 10 low income, at risk teenagers in their Youth Employment Program, that helps disadvantaged teens find summer jobs with local businesses.

RI Coalition Against Domestic Violence (Warwick) - $12,000 to benefit 375 children who seek services at the 6 different shelter locations in RI, and provide supplies like materials for art therapy, toys for playrooms, school supplies and basic necessities such as diapers.

Virginia
ALIVE1 (ALexandrians InVolved Ecumenically) (Alexandria) - $7,500 to purchase food and provide financial assistance to families with children who are in need through their food distribution programs.

Eastern Henrico FISH Inc (Richmond) - $5,000 to support 35-65 individuals with short-tern emergency assistance, such as rent, utilizes and mortgage payments in Henrico County.

Friends in Deed (Virginia Beach) - $2,000 to support 50 senior citizens in their Quality of Life program, which helps financially struggling individuals with maintaining proper nutrition, transportation to doctor's appointments and maintain clean and comfortable living environments.

About BJ's Charitable Foundation
BJ's Charitable Foundation was established with the mission to enrich every community BJ's Wholesale Clubs serve. The Foundation supports nonprofit organizations that primarily benefit the underprivileged in the area of basic needs (food, self sufficiency and health). Since its first grant in 2005, BJ's Charitable Foundation has given more than $7.4 million to over 800 deserving organizations. In 2008, BJ's Charitable Foundation and its vendor partners donated more than $1.7 million to over 150 non-profits including a $500,000 donation from the October Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign, which was divided among leading comprehensive cancer centers throughout BJ's footprint. The Foundation, with support from its vendors, has granted nearly $1.2 million through the October Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign since the campaign launch in 2006. For more information about BJ's Charitable Foundation and eligibility and application procedures, please visit, www.bjs.com/charity.

BJ's Wholesale Club

BJ's Wholesale Club

About BJ's Wholesale Club

Headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, BJ's is a leading operator of membership warehouse clubs in the Eastern United States. The company currently operates 207 clubs in 15 states.

BJ’s provides a one-stop shopping destination filled with more top-quality, leading brands including its exclusive Wellsley Farms and Berkley Jensen brands, which are all backed by BJ’s 100% money-back guarantee; more fresh foods from USDA Choice meats to premium produce to delicious organics in many supermarket sizes; and more great value and amazing savings every day. BJ’s is also the only membership club to accept all manufacturers' coupons and for greater convenience offers the most payment options.

Giving back has always been at the very core of BJ’s culture, too. Through local clubs, volunteerism, BJ’s Feeding Communities and BJ’s Charitable Foundation, the company supports and enhances programs that provide vital services within each community it serves. Additionally, BJ’s is focused on preserving the Earth for future generations through a wide array of responsible sourcing and sustainability efforts. For more information, visit www.bjs.com/community.

To check out all the MORE BJ’s has to offer, visit www.bjs.com and for exclusive content find us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

About BJ’s Charitable Foundation

BJ’s Charitable Foundation was established with the mission to enrich every community BJ’s Wholesale Clubs serve. The Foundation supports nonprofit organizations that primarily benefit the underprivileged in the areas of hunger prevention and education. To learn more, visit www.bjs.com/charity.

More from BJ's Wholesale Club