Taco, Inc.’s John & Happy White Foundation is now the White Family Foundation. The non-profit charitable foundation, established in 2000, recently received permission for the name change from State of RI.

Taco President & CEO John Hazen White, Jr. poses with Candy Castaldi, senior vice president. of Taco, Inc.’s circulator division, and Jean Johnson,Executive Director of House of Hope Community Development Corp. House of Hope and the RI Free Clinic recently received a $10,000 grant from the White Family Foundation.

John Hazen White, Jr. President and CEO of Taco, Inc., says the name change is a reflection of the Foundation’s continuing efforts as it enters its second decade of gift-giving.

“My late parents established the John & Happy White Foundation to benefit worthy community-based organizations operating here in RI for the benefit of Rhode Islanders. While we have altered the Foundation name slightly to reflect where we are today, the mission they established remains the same,” White says.

Recent gifts have included awards of $10,000 each to the House of Hope Community Development Corporation of Warwick, which provides permanent housing and social services to families and individuals in need, and to the RI Free Clinic of Providence, providing free care to the uninsured.

“Both of these organizations are on the frontlines of providing the homeless and the uninsured with housing and medical care at one of the most difficult economic times in our state’s history,” White explains. “The work of these organizations are in service to two of society’s most critical tasks,” the White Family Foundation stated in its announcement of the gifts.

The Foundation also made a $20,000 contribution recently to Butler Hospital for the creation of a new Center for Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Alzheimer’s Disease.