The latest round of Granny’s Attic grants have gone to eight Vashon nonprofits offering health-related programs and services to islanders across the age spectrum.

More than 60 members of Granny’s Attic voted on a dozen grant applications earlier this month as part of the thrift shop’s twice-yearly funding cycle and chose to divide $100,000 among eight of the grants submitted, according to Granny’s Business Manager Tim Johnson. A wide range of nonprofits are represented in the mix, including two organizations that Granny’s consistently supports: Vashon Community Care (VCC) for its ongoing work and Vashon Youth & Family Services (VYFS) for its Wellness Voucher Program.

“Our membership strongly supports VCC,” said Janet Kime, Granny’s Attic board president. “And the medical voucher program — most of us see that as our core program. If we could not support anything else, we would support that,” she said.

Granny’s first began supporting VCC in 2007, making that agency the first island nonprofit to receive assistance from Granny’s other than the Vashon Health Center, Kime said. In the last five years, Granny’s has provided more than $260,000 to the care facility, including the most recent award of $66,650 — the largest amount awarded in this funding round.

Verna Everitt, the executive director of the Vashon Community Care Foundation, welcomed the Granny’s news. She said she had written the grant for $150,000, what she called her “standard amount,” but was pleased to receive a portion of the request.

“Every time Granny’s gives us any grant of any size, I am so appreciative and overjoyed with the gift. That is what it is — an outright gift from Granny’s and the volunteers,” she said.

As part of its mission, VCC, a community-owned, nonprofit facility, does not turn residents out when they exhaust their private funds and then rely on Medicaid — a government program that helps with medical costs for people with limited incomes. Medicaid, however, only covers a portion of the cost of care, and VCC must make up the remainder.

“We could have a better business model, but that that would not be in line with our mission,” she said.

Medicaid reimbursement rates have long been stagnant, Everitt noted, while the cost of providing care has increased. This year, she added, on average in VCC’s assisted living facility, there will be 13 residents on Medicaid, creating a $390,000 shortfall there, and in the skilled nursing facility, there will be 18 residents covered by Medicaid, creating an additional deficit of $529,000.

This year, Everitt is tasked with raising $650,000 to address the portion of the shortfall VCC cannot make up for in other ways, and the grant from Granny’s will help address that need.

VCC’s foundation in now in its third year, and soon, Everitt said, she will begin reaching out to major donors, hoping they will donate to VCC like they did with Vashon Allied Arts.

“That is our next step,” she said. “We are working hard with board members to come up with a game plan and ask for those larger gifts.”

After VCC, VYFS’ Wellness Voucher Program received this year’s second largest allotment of Granny’s funds. The voucher program assists with the costs of medical appointments and prescriptions, as well as gas and ferry expenses for low-income islanders who need assistance getting to off-island medical appointments.

Granny’s had already budgeted $60,000 for that program this year, Kim said, but VYFS requested an additional $3,000 to keep up with demand.

Laura Rollins, a fund development assistant at VYFS, noted the recent growth of the voucher program. In 2015, she said, staff distributed 790 vouchers worth $41,200, including 92 medical vouchers, 110 pharmacy vouchers and 588 ferry vouchers. That was a dramatic increase from 2014, when VYFS issued 325 vouchers worth $33,000.

While medical vouchers have remained stable during those years and prescription vouchers increased some, ferry vouchers skyrocketed, Rollins added, rising from just 154 in 2014. Rollins said VYFS administrators attribute this shift to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which provides people with improved access to primary care. She added they believe that islanders who previously had to use vouchers to gain access to basic medical care now use their Medicaid or private insurance to cover that care and use vouchers for prescription medication and transportation costs to seek off-island specialty care.

“In all, we think this shows a very positive outcome for the health of low-income Islanders in need of assistance,” she said in a recent email.

The Vashon Senior Center, facing a budgetary shortfall of $15,000 this year, also received good news from Granny’s Attic, which fully funded director Ava Apple’s $15,000 request. Apple called the award “a godsend.”

Last summer, longtime funder United Way of King County withdrew its support for programs that assist seniors effective in July of this year. For the senior center, that translated to $15,000 that would not be coming this year and $30,000 — one quarter of the senior center’s operating budget — in the coming years.

Facing hard budget choices last year, Apple said she cut a popular fitness class, and noted the center’s general operating budget is taking a big hit.

“Without this generous support from Granny’s, we would be looking at even more hard choices, including the possibility of having to cut back our hours of operation. This would have a negative impact on all of the seniors who rely on our programs, especially the transportation and nutrition programs,” she said.

Additionally, Vashon Interfaith Council to Prevent Homelessness (IFCH) saw its $5,000 grant request fully funded. The council’s Nancy Vanderpool said the funds will help the nonprofit continue to assist islanders with rent and a range of other needs that often arise when medical issues occur, such as transportation expenses, medication costs and medical bills themselves. She added that IFCH no longer brings the dental van to the island, but people still have dental needs, and some of the grant money may also be used to fund those costs.

Vanderpool noted that through this portion of its program, IFCH served islanders 176 times last year, including 52 families.

Granny’s also awarded four smaller grants for a range of programs. Seeds 4 Success, which serves islanders with disabilities, including substance abuse, will receive up to $4,750 to fund necessary drug and alcohol evaluations by Casteele Williams, which provides drug and alcohol treatment and services on the island. Lee Kopines, who heads Seeds 4 Success, said she expects this type of funding will only be needed this year, as Casteele Williams is applying to accept expanded Medicaid, which would cover the assessments, but that is a long process and not yet completed.

The DoVE Project, Vashon’s domestic violence agency, received $3,150 to help fund its prevention work in high schools, while Honoring Choices, which provides information and tools to talk about end-of-life wishes and helps execute written advance directives, received $1,450 for materials and classes. Finally, the Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA) received $1,000 to help make fresh produce more available to women, children and seniors.

Granny’s next award cycle will come in September, when Johnson, Granny’s business manager, said he expects more money will be available than in this round. Due to his managerial role, he cannot vote on the grants, but he works with agencies to give them assistance in the grant process.

“I will help everybody who comes try to write the best grant they can,” he said.

Granny’s Attic Board President Kime noted that last year, Granny’s approved $293,000 in grant money, bringing its 40-year total of supporting health care needs on the island to $4.4 million.