The Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded a total $66,500 in grants to organizations during their September meeting, including $36,500 to agencies serving residents in Hall and Lumpkin counties: $15,000 to Elachee Nature Science Center in Gainesville to help offer discounts for students in Title 1 schools in Banks, Barrow, Clarke, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson, Lumpkin and Madison counties to encourage environmental science/nature field trips that provide students with STEM-based educational experiences that cannot be duplicated in the classroom. $10,000 to the Rainbow Children’s Home, a Dahlonega shelter for abused and neglected girls, to help fund programs that go beyond the basics of food, clothing and shelter to provide services such as substance abuse treatment, independence and wellness training, and family reunification services. $7,500 to the CASA Hall/Dawson Program Inc., which trains and supervises community volunteer advocates for abused and neglected children in Juvenile Court proceedings in Hall and Dawson counties, to train 25 new volunteers, cover costs for family visitation and provide special needs funding for 71 children to provide food and clothing. $4,000 to Lumpkin County Family Connection to purchase food and supplies for its Backpack Buddy program, which provides a supply of 10 pounds of food for seven meals and four snacks each week to children identified by Family Advocacy as food insecure. Jackson EMC Foundation grants are made possible by the more than 183,200 participating cooperative members who have their monthly electric bills rounded to the next dollar amount through the Operation Round Up program. Their “spare change” has funded 1,123 grants to organizations and 336 grants to individuals, putting nearly $11.4 million back into local communities since the program began in 2005.