Nonprofits plan to celebrate milestone

NASHVILLE — Mother’s Cupboard and Habitat for Humanity will unite for a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday.

One fundraising goal has been met to build a shared headquarters for the nonprofits at the county fairgrounds in Nashville.

The boards needed $350,000. The $300,000 goal for construction has been met; fundraising for the $50,000 operating and maintenance endowment is ongoing.

The single-story, 3,200-square-foot, wood-frame building will go between the horse arena and the Sycamore Valley Community Center. It will provide an upgraded kitchen for Mother’s Cupboard, storage for the food pantry, storage for Habitat building materials and a conference room that also will be used by 4-H groups.

The commission approved the use of Brown County stone on the bottom and vinyl siding on the top, with an open-truss front porch.

“This space is really needed because Mother’s Cupboard is inadequate in a number of ways for what they are serving now,” Habitat’s Jim Drum said.

The community kitchen, housed in Bean Blossom since 1999, serves an average of 140 free meals a day, 364 days a year. It also distributes free grocery items.

Habitat has been without a permanent, dedicated storage area for its building supplies. Since Habitat began in Brown County in 1989, the group has built 17 homes and completed several home rehabilitation projects, helping 130 Brown County residents.

The Lilly Endowment, the Cummins Foundation, the Brown County Rotary Club and the Howard Hughes Legacy Fund through the Brown County Community Foundation are among the groups that helped make groundbreaking possible.

Once construction starts, the group estimated it would take 90 days to complete the project. The goal is to get it done by the first of September.

Sara Clifford is editor of the Brown County Democrat, a sister publication of The Republic.

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What: Groundbreaking for the new shared building for Brown County Habitat for Humanity and Mother’s Cupboard

When: 11 a.m. Saturday

Where: Brown County Fairgrounds, Nashville.

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