WILMINGTON, N.C. (WWAY-TV) — Nearly a year after the New Hanover Community Endowment withdrew more than $6 million in funding for the proposed Northside Food Co-op, the organization’s leadership says a shift in the co-op’s vision and rulings from the Internal Revenue Service played a key role in the decision.
The funding cancellation resurfaced as a major topic during the endowment’s semiannual public meeting this week, where community members questioned the organization’s decision to pull support from a project aimed at addressing food insecurity in Wilmington’s Northside neighborhood.
In an interview with WWAY, Board Chair Shannon Winslow and President and CEO Sophie Dagenais said the IRS determined that a grocery store did not qualify as a charitable project under the guidelines governing the endowment’s grantmaking…