The Community Foundation of Greenville in South Carolina has announced the creation of a $3.4 million fund to help families in need, the Greenville News reports.

Created with the largest gift the community foundation has ever received from a living donor, the Jim and Kit Pearce Endowment awarded initial grants totaling $150,000 to local agencies that work with the homeless, the poor, and others in need. Recipients include the Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network, Triune Mercy Center, United Ministries, Gateway House, Habitat for Humanity, Homes of Hope, Project Host, Harvest Hope, and Greer Community Ministries.

Jim Pearce, who expanded a produce distributorship started by his grandfather into PYA/Monarch, one of the nation's largest regional food and beverage distributors, originally had planned for the fund to begin making grants after his death. At age 92, however, he decided not to wait. Pearce and his wife, Kit, who died in 2013, had a charitable fund with the foundation and also made numerous gifts to the University of South Carolina, including the first $1 million gift to its School of Medicine in Greenville.

Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network executive director Tony McDade told the Greenville News that the grant will enable the agency to add one or two temporary housing units and provide cars for people so they can work. "We will be able to do some things we wouldn't ordinarily do," said McDade.