Piedmont Agency on Aging Receives GCCF Innovation Grant, June 2025
Greenwood County Community Foundation (GCCF) has awarded an Innovation Grant for $50,000 to Piedmont Agency on Aging for the purchase of a catering trailer to be used in support of their Meals on Wheels program.
Tracy Bedenbaugh, Executive Director of Piedmont Agency on Aging expressed, “We are really excited about this opportunity offered to us by the Greenwood County Community Foundation. Having a catering trailer has been a dream of mine for over 10 years. To be given this chance to expand our reach in the community through raising funds and awareness will be huge for us! Thank you GCCF!”
The GCCF Innovation Grant is offered biennially and supports creative ideas that foster strategic change within the Greenwood County community. It is awarded to an applicant organization demonstrating a sound approach to addressing root causes of systemic problems or deficiencies, and by contributing to a healthy, thriving community.
Mary Woodiwiss, GCCF Director of Grants and Projects, commented, “As in previous Innovation cycles, this year’s applicants for the Innovation Grant demonstrated diverse approaches to meeting community needs and opportunities in innovative ways. It is our honor to be able to offer support to nonprofits serving our home community through GCCF funding.”
“As a board member of the Greenwood County Community Foundation and a participant on the Innovation Grant selection committee, I was honored to help choose this year’s grant recipient,” said Laura Bachinski. “We were inspired by Piedmont Agency on Aging’s creative approach to supporting seniors in our community. Their plan to use a catering trailer to generate revenue at local events—by preparing and selling food made in their existing kitchen—stood out as both resourceful and sustainable. It’s a truly innovative way to build on what they already do well, while creating a new income stream to strengthen services for the elderly in Greenwood County. We believe this project will have a lasting impact and exemplifies the kind of forward-thinking solution the Innovation Grant was designed to support.”
