In the spirit of giving, several Austin organizations will be seeing some additional support thanks to The Hormel Foundation’s announcement on Monday morning.

The Hormel Foundation approved a budget of $8.4 million for 2019 grants to benefit the foundation’s supported organizations. Included among that list are: the Austin Area Foundation, Austin Community Charitable Fund, Austin Community Growth Ventures, Austin Community Scholarship Committee, Austin Public Schools, Cedar Valley Services, city of Austin, The Hormel Institute, Mayo Clinic Health Systems-Austin, Parenting Resource Center, Riverland Community College, The Salvation Army, United Way of Mower County and the YMCA of Austin.

“These agencies do an outstanding job of identifying and addressing many of the needs of our community,” said Jeff Ettinger, chairman of The Hormel Foundation. “We are also thankful for the hard work and success of the Hormel Foods team, as it is the dividends we receive from the company that fund these initiatives.”

Monday’s announcement also marked the first Ettinger made as the new chairman of The Hormel Foundation, succeeding former chairman Gary Ray.

The Hormel Institute was named the principal recipient of The Hormel Foundation’s annual contributions, acknowledging the institute’s commitment for continuing its cancer research. Along with this announcement, substantial additional funding was provided to area community projects such as the recreation center, the MacPhail Music Center, and The Hormel Foundation Austin Assurance Scholarship Program.

Not only that, 18 other nonprofit, local agencies will receive 2019 grant funds from the George A. Hormel Testamentary Trust. The Hormel Foundation serves as trustee for the trust, which is a private grant fund which provides around $65,000 additional grants every year.