The Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation has changed its policy of excluding white-run organizations from applying for a new grant program after a medical watchdog organization brought media attention to what it called divisiveness “at a new level.”
Laura Morgan, program manager for Do No Harm—an organization that investigates and spotlights discriminatory practices in medical institutions—told The Epoch Times that the foundation “got caught red-handed when they tried to inject ugly racial politics into their grant-making process.”
“Discrimination should have no place in our society, yet they were prepared to reject grant applications from nonprofits led by white CEOs just because of their skin color,” Morgan said. “Do No Harm, along with BCBS customers and North Carolina state policymakers, will be watching very closely how the foundation updates the grant’s eligibility criteria.”
The foundation is a private charity established by Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of North Carolina in 2000.
The $300,000 grant program, Advancing Healthy Food Equity (AHFE), initially disqualified organizations with white directors or CEOs from applying.
To qualify, the community being directly served by the organization also had to be nonwhite.
“This opportunity is specifically designed to support community-rooted organizations that are led by, serving, and accountable to American Indians, black, Latino, other people of color, and members of immigrant communities, to increase their ability to engage in advocacy to address the root causes of inequitable access to healthy food,” a spokesperson for BCBS said in the promotional video for the grant program.
The spokesperson added that the grant funds are to be used specifically for advocacy.
Policy Change
Do No Harm’s report led to media coverage, after which the foundation issued an update on its website in which it stated that it would expand its eligibility criteria.“Since we released this funding opportunity in early January, we have received inquiries from potential applicants and others working in the community whose work aligns with the goals of this opportunity, yet whose organizations don’t quite match all aspects of the stated eligibility criteria,” BCBS said. “After careful consideration, we have decided to expand both the number of organizations being supported by this grant funding, as well as the eligibility criteria for those seeking an award.”
With the new criteria, the number of funded organizations is 14 instead of 10, the eligibility is being expanded to include a focus on rural communities, and the eligibility requirement that the organization’s CEO is a member of the community being served has also been waived.
The Initial Grant
Originally, the grants were to be awarded to 10 organizations at $100,000 a year for three years.A note at the bottom of the webpage for the grant program stated that “race plays a significant role in the inequities we see in our communities, and therefore it must also have a significant place in our organization’s strategies to increase equitable access to healthy food.”
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, founder and chairman of Do No Harm, told The Epoch Times in a previous statement that the policy was a bad idea, adding to division in the country.
“Even having a leader of an organization who is white is enough to prevent the entity, which apparently serves minority communities, from participating in a grant program,” Goldfarb said. “Do Americans really want this sort of apartheid?”
In response to a request by The Epoch Times for comment, the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation provided the update found on its webpage.
