STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Cox Communications invited representatives of three Wood River Valley nonprofits to breakfast last week. Then, employees surprised them by giving each $10,000 for the work they do.

Cox Communications employees gave $10,000 each to The Hunger Coalition, Flourish Foundation and the Blaine County Education Foundation in celebration of the 30th year of the employee-funded and directed Cox Charities.

Cox Charities reflects the continued commitment of the local Cox Communications office to investing in the communities where its employees live and work.

Lynea Newcomer described how The Hunger Coalition offers two summer food sites for children five days a week in Hailey and one for children in Carey four times a week. One for Ketchum is under consideration.

“I can’t say enough about what these organizations do,” said Victor Watson, sales and marketing manager for Cox’s Sun Valley office. “Not enough people know what we do for people. Our employees not only donate to these organizations but they show up to volunteer like no other organization--from the Senior Connection to the trails.”

Of course, the organizations didn’t walk away with just a breakfast veggie wrap, bowl of fruit and $10,000 check. They were also asked to tell a room full of Cox employees just what they do.

Lynea Newcomer, who was appointed interim executive director of THE HUNGER COALITION two weeks ago, told how The Hunger Coalition started 22 years ago as a volunteer-run organization working out of a closet where granola bars and cans of beans were stashed ahead of being handed out to those in need.

Today it has 22 paid staff as the organization has moved out of the closet to the Bloom Community Food Center where The Hunger Coalition not only distributes food but helps family secure mental health resources, get on a list for affordable housing and more as it attempts to stabilize households.

Susie Zachman, a board member with the Blaine County Education Foundation, describes a scenario representative of some of the students the BCEF serves as Victor Watson and Guy Cherp listen.

It also invests staff time advocating for such things as affordable healthcare and suicide prevention.

The Hunger Coalition offers a food safety net for school children during summer providing weekday lunches and 500 snacks a week, which it distributes at libraries and other organizations.

It distributed 11,926 food boxes between 1 and 6:30 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays in 2025. Households get a box every two weeks, able to choose what they want via an online food order.

Many recipients volunteer at various programs as a way to pay it back, rather than just being on the receiving end. In 2025 for instance, 146 volunteers helped Volunteer for Veggies. About 60 different people volunteered to help with meal preparation for Community Kitchen every quarter.

Ryan Redman says Flourish Foundation helps students notice when they start to feel anger or fear so they can take a break, figure out what triggered the emotion and figure out how to address it.

Newcomer said that when she started working with the Hunger Coalition more than a decade ago, the typical recipient needed help for eight months while they paid off medical or other bills. Now, 35 percent of those receiving aid need it longer due to the high cost of living in the valley.

“That’s notable,” Newcomer said.

Susie Zachman a board member for BLAINE COUNTY EDUCATION FOUNDATION, said her organization helps provide school lunches football uniforms and other items to students who cannot afford them.

She told a representational tale of Sophia, a 12-year-old seventh grader. Her parents both work and together they make $52,000 which goes to rent, utilities and car payments. They make too much to qualify for federal assistance, which is capped at $40,000 for a family of their size. But they can’t afford many of the resources Sophia needs in a county where the cost of food, gas and other necessities are so high.

Cox Communications employees post many of their goals on the wall.

As a result, Sophia showed up to school without the pencils and binders she needed. She left her permission slip for a field trip to Boise unsigned because her parents couldn’t afford the $45 cost.

Once BCEF became aware of her situation, they stepped in. Now Sophia receives a backpack filled with school supplies before the beginning of school and she enjoys school lunches alongside her classmates.

“She walks into her classroom on an equal footing. She’s alert, engaged,” said Zachman noting that nutritional deficits reduce the capacity to learn by 10 percent to 15 percent.

Sophia even landed a role in the school play thanks to a drama teacher who had applied for a grant from BCEF to stage the play.

“Now she’s on track for college,” Zachman added, noting that Sophia can apply for one of 50 scholarships administered by the BCEF. “We’re trying to close the gap in a county where food and rent is higher than the national average. And Cox employees are amazing in the way you help pack 458 backpacks and hand them out at the start of school.”

Ryan Redman, who founded the FLOURISH FOUNDATION, keyed off on the first two presentations, noting that “while we all know that basic needs have to be met, at the same time we need to nourish heart and mind.”

“Mental health is becoming one of the first and foremost needs in our community. Forty percent of middle school students said they’re suffering from depression,” he said.

The Flourish Foundation addresses mental health from cradle to grave, he said, with programs showing expectant couples how to create an environment in utero to help their child’s success and showing 1,200 students a week how to recognize and deal with emotions that might block their capacity to show up in their best way.

Flourish Foundation cultivates Compassionate Leaders to show up for the community. It works with teachers to show them how to provide support and resources for their students. And it even offers programs showing people how to deal with grief and how to flourish through dying.

“We don’t teach people how to deal with loss well,” Redman noted.

Redman noted he has known many of the seniors he now works with since kindergarten.

“They’re developing their own internal toolbox to navigate through life. They’re learning things that will help them show up and meet the world where it is, to shift the course when it comes to all the many challenges facing us from nuclear war to global warming to species extinction.”

Over the past five years, Cox Charities has provided more than $50,000 in grants to organizations serving the Wood River Valley.

“I love each of the programs,” said Cox employee Shannon Thomas. “I cry when I watch the kids come in for their backpacks at the beginning of the school year. They’re so excited.”