Two emergency food agencies raised more than $10,000 from local donors in response to a challenge grant offered by the Alan Shawn Feinstein Foundation.

The foundation, based in Cranston, R.I., made $1 million available to non-profit agencies that fight hunger by pledging to match check and cash donations the non-profits collected in March and April.

Once the total collected exceeded $1 million, the foundation divided the grant money proportionally among agencies that qualified, based on each agency's percentage of the total reported by all participants.

Community Food Warehouse, based in Farrell, raised $6,657, and recently received a check for $159 from the foundation.

"We're happy," said Executive Director Michael Wright. "Those extra dollars help."

Grace Food Pantry, Grove City, raised $4,455 and got a Feinstein check for $114.

Wright said the warehouse received five or six donations from new donors, and some sizable gifts from groups.

The money went into the warehouse's general fund, and likely will be used for food purchases and to buy personal items, he said.

"It will be put to good use," he said.

The money raised was not part of the warehouse's annual fund-raiser, which this year collected $35,344.

But Grace Food Pantry runs its annual fund drive to coincide with the Feinstein challenge grant, said Coordinator Ruth Henry.

"It has really helped us survive through the summer," she said.

The pantry operates on a grant from the state and local contributions that come in throughout the year, she said.

"Grove City is a very generous town when it comes to the poor and needy," she said.

The warehouse has participated in the challenge grant for four years. During that time, it has raised $28,226 and the foundation has paid it $945.

This year was probably the third that Grace participated, Ms. Henry said. The pantry collected $1,913 in local donations in 2000 and received $280, while Ms. Henry didn't recall what the pantry raised and received last year.

According to the foundation's Web site -- www.feinsteinfoundation.com -- the matching grant program raised $45.1 million for 1,714 agencies this year.

The foundation has made the grant available for five years and it has raised more than $165 million for more than 2,000 agencies.

Feinstein is the founder of the Center for a Hunger Free America at the University of Rhode Island and the Feinstein International Famine Center at Tufts University, Boston.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot at jpinchot@sharon-herald.com