MARQUETTE — The Superior Health Foundation is now accepting large grant applications for its Indigent Care Fund.

SHF will award funding at its spring grant celebration in mid-April. Grant requests cannot exceed $5,000.

Eligibility information and online application forms are available at superiorhealthfoundation.org. Applications will be accepted through March 1.

The SHF’s Grants Committee will review the applications and will make its recommendations to the SHF Board of Directors at its March board meeting.

SHF in the spring of 2018 was the recipient of $1.2 million from the former Medical Care Access Coalition. Those funds have been invested in the market, with investment earnings used to provide funding to tax-exempt and government organizations that provide or arrange for medical or health care services to Upper Peninsula residents.

“We’re excited to make this funding available to those organizations across the Upper Peninsula whose focus is on health and offer services to the indigent,” said Jim LaJoie, executive director of the Superior Health Foundation, in a news release. “We funded two projects in the fall to ‘kick-start’ this fund, and since then, there has been a great deal of interest across the region in these grant dollars becoming available.”

LaJoie said that beginning this spring, interest earnings from the investment of the $1.2 million will be awarded in the form of grants.

The two projects involve Lake Superior Life Care & Hospice and the Marquette County Health Department.

Lake Superior Life Care & Hospice will receive $5,000. The hospice annually provides care to about 125 hospice patients, reaches around 25 adult day service participants plus their caregivers, and serves another 20 to 25 clients through its Transitions and Journeys programs.

SHF provided $5,000 in funding for its Life Care for Those in Need program, which covers costs for hospice clients, and the adult day service program.

The other $5,000 grant recipient was the Marquette County Health Department, which is involved in My Community Dental Centers, a nonprofit dedicated to providing dental services to Medicaid enrollees and low-income, uninsured residents throughout Michigan.

Its mission is to improve the lives of our patients and enhance community health through a high standard of oral health care.

LaJoie said providing dental care to Medicaid and low-income, uninsured patients can present a financial challenge for an organization due to low, or in some cases non-existent, reimbursement for services provided to the patients.

SHF awarded funding for the Upper Peninsula Friendly Smile Fund, which covers dental services provided to patients who receive a discounted rate, or don’t pay at all.

SHF’s mission is to assist with unmet health care needs, health education and programs, and research on preventing illness and promoting health throughout the U.P. Its vision is to improve the health of U.P. residents.

For more information, contact the SHF at 906-225-6914 or email shf@superiorhealthfoundation.org.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250.