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Cobb County ARPA grant helps Loving Arms cover rent and groceries for cancer patients
Summary
Loving Arms Cancer Outreach used a $1,110,000 ARPA grant from Cobb County to launch a 2023 program that can cover up to three months of rent or mortgage payments and expand grocery assistance; the nonprofit says it has helped more than 130 county residents.
Loving Arms Cancer Outreach received a $1,110,000 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant from Cobb County in 2023 to launch a program that covers up to three months of rent or mortgage payments for county residents and expand grocery assistance, the nonprofit said.
The funding is intended to ease financial strain that can accompany cancer treatment and related household costs. Loving Arms said the funds have allowed it to help more than 130 people in Cobb County since the program began.
"From the moment I came here for the first support group, I knew that I was home and I knew I was in the right place," said Arlette Reyes, a Loving Arms program participant who was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in September 2024. Reyes said juggling chemotherapy, work and raising two young boys made assistance critical.
The nonprofit launched the rental assistance program in 2023 with the ARPA award. According to Loving Arms, the program covers up to three months of rent or mortgage payments for eligible Cobb residents and the ARPA funds also supported an expansion of the group's grocery assistance program.
"The struggle they go through emotionally, the hardship it puts on the family, I just like to help people try to make that a little easier," said Janet Graham, director of Loving Arms Cancer Outreach.
Margaret McCants, a Kennesaw resident who has been fighting cancer for nine years, said the rental help changed her options when bills threatened stability. "So all our lives, we work paycheck to paycheck and just making it through so to have something gifted to you. It's a prayer," McCants said.
Loving Arms said the ARPA funding made the program possible and that it remains available to qualifying Cobb County residents. The nonprofit directs people seeking assistance or more information to contact Loving Arms Cancer Outreach directly.
