From child care to health care, and from affordable housing to famously good brownies, the Greyston Foundation has a long history of making a difference in Yonkers.
The Leviticus Fund made its first loan to the Greyston Foundation in 1995 – a $24,000 bridge loan to support their day care center, Greyston Family Inn, which was funded through a Community Development Block Grant. That loan, while small by today’s standards, represented 6% of the Leviticus Fund’s disbursements of $375,000 that year.
Since then, the Leviticus Fund and Greyston Foundation have continued a strong partnership in service to the community including a $100,000 loan in 2000 for work at the Greyston Family Inn at 68 Warburton Avenue in Yonkers, and a working capital loan of $175,000 in 2003.
In 2018, as their focus shifted from housing to job creation, Leviticus provided Greyston with a 15-year, $1.3 million loan to support the first phase of development of the Center for Open Hiring. In 2021, the Center evolved into the Greyston Employment Opportunity Center, which provides workforce development, wraparound social support services and supports businesses in adopting inclusive hiring practices through global and national partnerships.
Greyston’s Open Hiring® model has paid off for individuals, communities, and society as a whole. Open Hiring addresses the ongoing labor shortage by offering work on a first-come, first-hired basis, with no interviews, background checks, or resumes. This approach has proven successful at their bakery, which bakes the brownies used in one of Ben & Jerry’s most popular ice creams, Chocolate Fudge Brownie.
We’re so pleased that Rev. Julius Walls, Jr., former CEO of Greyston Bakery, former Senior Vice President of Greyston Foundation, and Leviticus Fund Board member from 2013 – 2022, will be the Keynote Speaker at our 40th Anniversary Celebration on Thursday, October 12 at the historic Apple Bank for Savings in Manhattan.
The Leviticus Fund is honored to mark 28 years of lending to the Greyston Foundation, a force for good in our community and the world. To learn more about their good work or order some of their delicious brownies—while supporting the community’s underserved—please visit Greyston.org.
