The statewide WealthSpring Fund, affiliated with the Nebraska Community Foundation, is seeking grant applications from nonprofit organizations doing work that aligns closely with its mission to increase Nebraska womens economic self-sufficiency.

The WealthSpring Fund collaborates with local organizations and supports projects and programs that help women with entrepreneurship training, banking skills, budget and financial management, financial literacy, education and training needed for employment or advancement, and work-related child care needs.

Nonprofit organizations that provide these types of services to women in their communities are encouraged to apply for up to $3,000 each.

The recession has hurt Wichita's poor people and their children much harder and faster than social service agencies predicted when it started last year, food charities say. Agencies that track poverty are compiling rapidly rising statistics about Wichita children going hungry, prompting the Wichita Community Foundation to call a July 13 summit of local leaders to figure out how to feed them.

"We've been hearing from people that the supply of food is available, but that some children aren't getting it."

The Kansas Food Bank recently created a statistical snapshot of hunger in Wichita one that shows gaps in service to the poorest people in the community:

In the year ending June 30, 2008, the food bank handed out 6.6 million pounds of food to the pantries it supplies in Wichita and statewide.

The number of children coming into the Lord's Diner every night has jumped 32 percent over last year.

Toedman said many of those children go hungry and that churches, local governments and aid agencies have had to step up food drives and other actions to stave off a possible crisis.

Among the agencies the foundation has invited are the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, Communities in Schools, the city of Wichita, the Wichita Police Department, the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, and many charities that help bring food to the poor. They share notes written by hungry children and by those who work with them at schools and food charities.