Citizens Bank Foundation awards $50,000 grant to R.I. Community Food Bank and lends Community Kitchen students a helping hand
Grant will help provide job-training, increase produce for hungry Rhode IslandersProvidence, RI (November 22, 2006) - The Citizens Bank Foundation today awarded a $50,000 grant to help support two of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank’s key projects – Community Kitchen and Farm-Fresh Produce Acquisition. The announcement was made this morning, when Citizens Bank of Rhode Island Chairman, President and CEO Joseph J. MarcAurele and a team of his colleagues went to the food bank to help Community Kitchen students with Thanksgiving eve meal production.
The food bank’s Community Kitchen program was hard at work, preparing a turkey dinner for the evening’s Kids Cafe meal when they received some helpful assistance from MarcAurele and his Citizens Bank team.
“As a thank you to my 5,500 Citizens colleagues here in Rhode Island, I am pleased to present this $50,000 grant to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank,” said Joseph J. MarcAurele, Chairman, President & CEO of Citizens Bank of Rhode Island. “This gift is important to so many in our state struggling to put food on the table everyday. Today represents our way of saying thank you to our colleagues for their commitment to our communities and to the staff and volunteers of the food bank for all they do to help so many in need across our state.”
Thanks to this generous grant from the Citizens Bank Foundation, the food bank’s Community Kitchen training program will continue to provide culinary training to low-income and unemployed adults. While enrolled in the job-training program, students will prepare nearly 500 meals each day for children in the city of Providence.
“We are so grateful for Citizens generous gift. Without support from corporations like Citizens, we wouldn’t be able to provide this training or this meal,” said Rosie Connors, Interim Executive Director of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. “For many of the children who will receive this turkey dinner, it may be their only Thanksgiving.”
Additionally, the food bank will use the remainder of its grant to help fund its produce acquisition efforts. In Rhode Island, the food bank has been working diligently to identify new sources of nutritious foods – particularly fresh produce from local sources. In 2006, for the first time ever, the food bank negotiated with a local farm to purchase 225,000 pounds of locally-grown produce. As the food bank prepares for 2007, a monetary investment from Citizens will allow the organization to purchase an extra 40,000 pounds of quality produce for those in need.
Citizens’ generous grant will also help the food bank continue to acquire fresh produce from farmers throughout the state, including the University of Rhode Island’s Agricultural Experiment Station in Kingston. This past season, local farmers throughout Rhode Island donated nearly 100,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables to the food bank for distribution to families in need. Citizens’ support will help to continue this local anti-hunger effort.
About the Citizens Bank Foundation
Citizens Bank Foundation is a charitable contributions vehicle of Citizens Bank. The foundation’s support is focused on housing, community development and basic human needs.
About the Rhode Island Community Food Bank
The Rhode Island Community Food Bank is a non-profit organization located in Providence, R.I. The food bank solicits, stores and distributes food products donated by supermarkets, wholesalers, food processors, local farmers and community food drives. The food is then distributed to the food bank’s network of approximately 400 member agency programs. In the past fiscal year, the food bank distributed a record 8.5 million pounds of food. For more information about the food bank, please visit www.rifoodbank.org
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