ACAF Grants Help Opportunities Grow at Fillmore Powerhouse

The Fillmore Youth Powerhouse provides free meals, recreation, tutoring, and hands-on activities for local youth with ACAF grant support.

Fillmore Powerhouse Program Director Matthew Brooks holds fresh vegetables from the Youth Community Garden. All photographs by Alyssa Bump, ACAF Communications Fellow.

Fresh vegetables straight from the garden. Basketball games outside. Homework help after school. Summer days filled with recreation and free lunches. Homemade pizza sauce with fresh tomatoes and basil grown mere steps away.

At the Fillmore Youth Powerhouse, these experiences give local youth a place to learn, play, eat, and spend time together.

The Allegany County Area Foundation (ACAF) provided two grants to the Fillmore Powerhouse in 2026 to help make this work possible. A $1,500 grant from the Carter-Windus Family Fund was awarded in April, followed by a $1,500 grant from the Allegany Fund in June.

Together, the grants supported the Powerhouse's Afterschool Tutoring & Recreation Program and Summer Recreation & Free Lunch Program.

This summer, the Powerhouse's Free Lunch Program served over 100 youth during its five-week summer program. Nearly 1,400 lunches and 1,416 snacks were served through congregate and non-congregate meal options.

During the school year, many local students have access to free breakfast and lunch at school. When summer arrives, the Powerhouse helps provide another source of consistent meals for families.

“When you are working with a community that is dealing with a lot of poverty [providing meals] is important,” Fillmore Powerhouse Program Director Matthew Brooks said. “For bigger families — four, five, six kids — that’s a huge expense.”

The Powerhouse offers congregate lunches for kids to eat on site, along with non-congregate meals and snacks that can be taken home. Together, the options provided food options for six days of the week during the summer program.

“We try to do what we can to take some of that burden off families,” Matthew said.

Fresh ingredients are also important. Meals range from homemade tacos and pizza with fresh produce grown in the Powerhouse's own backyard garden.

But meeting the needs of local youth goes beyond making sure they have something to eat. Brooks describes the Powerhouse's approach as holistic, with programs designed to support kids physically, mentally, socially, and academically.

“The Powerhouse aims to provide opportunities for kids where they feel fulfilled in all those areas and be connected with one another,” Matthew said.

That approach extends to the Powerhouse's rotating after-school clubs. Through Music Club, youth can learn to play drums, guitar, bass, or ukulele.

In Garden Club, kids learn about gardening and sustainability while growing produce from seed to harvest. Some of those fresh ingredients make their way into Cooking Club, where kids learn to prepare homemade recipes with fresh produce in the Powerhouse’s kitchen. 

Fillmore Powerhouse's Music Room, Outdoor Garden, and Recreation Shed.

The Arts and Crafts Club provides another creative outlet through hands-on projects, while the Outdoor Recreation Club gets kids moving together with games like capture the flag, kickball, tag, and foursquare. The Powerhouse even has a skatepark and splash pad on site for kids to stay active and enjoy outdoor play.

“The idea with the clubs is that it gives kids an opportunity to learn new skills, but also to feel like they’re growing, learning, and becoming good at different things,” Matthew said. “It builds community and a sense of connection.”

For Matthew, education is an especially important pillar at the Fillmore Powerhouse.

“If you can help youth with reading, writing, and getting their grades up, kids can have an opportunity to graduate high school,” he said. “Other kids that never thought that they would go to college have gone to college.”

At the Powerhouse, youth can receive one-on-one tutoring from Houghton University students. The Powerhouse also offers early-grade literacy support to help younger students strengthen their reading and writing skills.

ACAF grant funding helped the Powerhouse continue providing these opportunities throughout 2026. When the organization faced a $1,500 gap in funding for its summer program, the June grant from the Allegany Fund helped fill it.

“We were kind of looking around, like, ‘Where is this money going to come from?’” Matthew said. “ACAF provided us a grant for that, which allowed us to do the full program. That was incredibly helpful and essential.”

For Brooks, the Powerhouse has been part of his life much longer than his role as program director. His parents, Executive Director Marcie Brooks and Jerry Brooks, helped establish the Powerhouse alongside other community members in 2000.

“I started coming here [in my youth] when it opened in 2000, so I have been here for the whole thing,” Matthew said.

The Powerhouse began as a program for students in grades 7–12, open a few days each week with Teen Night on Saturdays. Over the years, it grew into a K–12 program offering after-school tutoring, recreation, early-grade literacy, clubs, summer programming, and more.

“The program expanded to meet different perceived needs in the community,” Brooks said. “We ask the kids what they are interested in and want to engage in, and we try to make that happen.”

Today, an average of 20 to 30 kids come through the Powerhouse each day. While the programs have expanded, the idea behind them remains much the same.

An inside look at the Powerhouse. All photographs by Alyssa Bump, ACAF Communications Fellow.

“We like to provide an opportunity for the kids in this community to have a safe place to go where they can enjoy recreation, free snacks, food, tutoring, early-grade literacy, and be able to experience community and learn new skills,” Matthew said.

More than 25 years after Matthew first walked through the Powerhouse doors himself, he is now helping create those new opportunities for another generation in the same space.



With support from the Carter-Windus Family Fund and Allegany Fund, ACAF grants actively assisted the Fillmore Powerhouse in providing meals, academic support, recreation, and meaningful experiences for local youth.

This project was made possible by an Allegany County Area Foundation grant. To learn more about how you can support local grant projects with ACAF, visit our Donate page or contact Executive Director Bruce Campbell at 585-296-5616 or director@acafny.org.