After some large grants in 2015 and more on the way in 2016, Mayor Tom Stiehm and the Austin City Council expressed their thanks to The Hormel Foundation during Monday night’s meeting.

The council unanimously accepted the first of $1 million of a $5 million grant The Hormel Foundation pledged to the new Jay C. Hormel Nature Center Interpretive Center, and the approval paved the way for the remainder of the grant to be paid out incrementally.

Stiehm noted that The Hormel Foundation’s effect was felt in 2015, as it also donated $3.65 million to drive the deal for Hy-Vee to acquire the former Oak Park Mall property, where it’s in the early stages of building a new 60,000- to 90,000-square-foot-grocery store.

“I think sometimes we take The Hormel Foundation for granted,” Stiehm said. “We’d be a different city without them.”

The Foundation is funding $5 million of the roughly $7 million nature center interpretive center project, which is set to officially break ground next spring after initial work this year.

The council also accepted $510,719 in 2016 grants — up from $475,473 in 2015 — as part of The Foundation’s record $7.8 million in 2016 allocations, which was up from $7.2 million this year.

“We are very fortunate to have a such a foundation located within our city that is willing to invest so much into the community,” Director of Administrative Services Tom Dankert wrote in the council agenda. “I also believe we will see several large projects being funded in 2016 outside of the normal allocation process, much like we have seen in prior years for nature centers, the Oak Park Mall purchase and school domes.”

Overall, The Hormel Foundation gave $21.4 million to the community in 2015, including an annual contributions budget of $7.1 million and another $14.3 million of other spending that included $3.4 million toward Vision 2020 projects and $8.7 million toward The Hormel Institute expansion.

The city of Austin is one of 12 qualifying organizations The Hormel Foundation supports through its contributions budget, which also include Austin Area Foundation, Austin Community Scholarship Committee, Austin Public Schools, Cedar Valley Services, Mayo Clinic Health System-Austin, Austin Salvation Army, The Hormel Institute, United Way of Mower County, YMCA of Austin, Austin Community Charitable Fund and Riverland Community College.