Emergency Fund for Older Philadelphians recipient of Philadelphia Foundation grant

The Philadelphia Foundation is donating a $120,000 grant to the Emergency Fund for Older Philadelphians.  

There was applause when the big check — both in its amount and its oversized, cardboard nature — was passed from the foundation to the fund. But the biggest ovation went to Stanley Clark, a local senior who relies on the emergency funds for survival.  

“This is what it’s all about,” Clark said. “Brotherly love. Helping one another.”

Specifically, it’s about helping Clark stay warm. That’s what Rodney Williams of the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging says.

“With the price of heating oil at over $3 a gallon we had exhausted our energy fund and we were lucky that the Philadelphia Fund in fact came to our rescue,” said Williams.

He also says the need still outweighs the money.

“There are more people to take it than we can raise,” he explained. “Times are so hard that people who would have never come to us in the past are calling us.”

He says the $120,000 will help about 400 seniors.