The Nevada County Relief Fund has announced grant awards from its first round of donations, which totalled 210-thousand dollars. Spokesman Caleb Dardick says they received 175 applications from small businesses for its micro-grants of up to five-thousand dollars each, and nearly two-dozen for the “safety net” grants from five to 20-thousand dollars each. The combined requests totalled over one-point-one million dollars…

Illustrating the flexibility in who qualified for a grant, Dardick mentioned the Penn Valley Rodeo Association…

Dardick says feeding hungry families, older adults, and other vulnerable residents was the key theme in “safety net” group applications. So four such organizations received funding: The Food Bank of Nevada County, Interfaith Food Ministry, FREED Center for Independent Living, and Gold Country Community Services. Additional grant cycles will occur every time the Relief Fund raises another 100-thousand dollars. 322-thousand dollars has now been raised. Dardick says the next application round should begin in about two weeks.