Missoula County to Distribute $1.32 Million in Grants to Community Organizations

Missoula County will distribute $1.32 million in County-funded grants to support programs and essential services for the most vulnerable people throughout the city and rural communities. Twenty-six organizations throughout the county will receive this funding, thanks to the long-standing Community Assistance Fund and voter-approved Substance Abuse Prevention Mill Levy.  

The organizations receiving County funds will provide services and direct assistance to children, youth, families and older residents whose lives will be improved with access to food, housing, behavioral services, substance use disorder programs and other supportive services. County funds also support grants to rural communities where local groups are actively implementing programs for the benefit of their towns and residents. 

In fiscal year 2027, 16 organizations will receive a total of $895,000 in Community Assistance Fund grants to help provide basic levels of food, shelter, medical care and emergency transportation to at-risk populations, such as the elderly, disabled, youth and families in crisis, and people experiencing homelessness. 

“Missoula County’s investment helps us bring food closer to where people live and in ways that reflect what families actually need,” said Amy Allison, executive director of Missoula Food Bank and Community Center. “Funding from the Community Assistance Fund sustains our rural pantries in Lolo, Bonner and Clinton, where distance and transportation can make food harder to access. It also supports our new pantry with Soft Landing Missoula, which offers familiar foods selected through the immigrant and refugee community's input. Together, these pantries help more Missoula County families access food in their own communities.”  

The CAF has roots going back to 1877, when the Montana Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana directed county commissions to use taxes to assist the poor by collecting annual bids for the “care, support and maintenance of the sick, poor and infirm of the county.” While many iterations of state law have occurred over the decades, it’s this foundation that guides the work of the CAF application review committee and, ultimately, the decisions the county commissioners make to allocate funding.