CUs Support Food Banks, Restaurants, Students & Essential Employees

OnPoint Community Credit Union President/CEO Rob Stuart and Chief Talent Officer Jackie Dunckley present a $100,000 donation to De La Salle North Catholic High School President Oscar Leong and three students completing their work-study program at OnPoint. For almost 20 years, the $6.5 billion OnPoint in Portland, Ore., has partnered with DLSNC to provide local underserved students valuable, real-life work experience through the high school’s Corporate Work Study Program. As the community comes together to tackle COVID-19, OnPoint announced it donated $100,000 to support the school’s recently announced capital campaign, which will fund a new permanent campus in Northeast Portland, at this critical time. DLSNC has already reached 85% of its goal to raise $21.6 million.

The $1.9 billion CAP COM Federal Credit Union in Albany, N.Y., and its charitable giving arm, the CAP COM Cares Foundation, announced a $50,000 donation to the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. This support has been provided to help alleviate hunger needs in the state’s Capital Region in the wake of coronavirus. The Regional Food Bank heavily depends on funds to meet the growing demand to feed children, seniors and families. Across 23 Capital Region counties, the organization is receiving an unprecedented number of requests for assistance in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. CAP COM’s $50,000 gift to the Regional Food Bank is in addition to the $450,000 slated for donation by the CAP COM Cares Foundation to hundreds of community organizations this year. In addition to the donation to the Food Bank, CAP COM is vowing to support many community partners and nonprofits immediately by participating in fundraising “non-events” throughout the year. CAP COM plans to allocate nearly $35,000 in the next few months to partners most in need.

The $934 million Neighbors Federal Credit Union in Baton Rouge, La., is purchasing $10,000 in gift cards from restaurants participating in Mayor-President Sharon Weston-Broome’s “Keep BR Serving campaign.” The gift cards will be provided to Neighbors employees in essential roles who are unable to work from home. The Keep BR Serving campaign will direct 30% of revenue from gift card sales directly to impacted tipped workers to help cover lost tips and wages.

The $857 million Marine Credit Union in La Crosse, Wis., committed more than $5 million to COVID-19 relief. The money will be distributed through several programs designed to help those hit hardest, including through the commitment to continue paying all 450-plus Marine employees, regardless of their ability to work normal hours during this crisis; deferred loan payments for existing Marine members who have been financially impacted; and loans with six months no interest for existing Marine members and employees who have been financially impacted. Additionally, a team of employees is forging connections with members in need through outbound Compassion Calls. These calls include everything from courtesy check-ins with elderly members to happy birthdays. The credit union is also distributing $50,000 per month to local teams to help support many individual communities. These dollars will be kept local for patronizing area businesses and supporting COVID-19 relief.

The $3.3 billion Coastal Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C., donated 150 laptops to the Wake Tech Foundation to help students continue to pursue their educational goals during the coronavirus pandemic. The college is working to identify students who need a reliable computer and shipping a laptop to their home within a week. The laptop donations began quickly after Creighton Blackwell, vice president of corporate affairs and community engagement for Coastal and a member of the Wake Tech Foundation board of directors, called Wake Tech to ask what the college needed to help students. Local nonprofit Kramden Institute, which partners with schools and organizations across the state to bridge the digital divide by providing technology tools and training, prepared the laptops to make sure they had Windows 10 and other necessary programs and tools.

To help restock depleted food bank shelves brought on by the COVID-19 crisis, the TowerCares Foundation, the charitable arm of the $3.2 billion Tower Federal Credit Union in Laurel, Md., donated $75,000 to three local area food banks. The credit union donated $25,000 each to The Maryland Food Bank in Baltimore, Anne Arundel County Food Bank in Crownsville and the Capital Area Food Bank in D.C.

Please send your Community news items to Tahira Hayes at thayes@cutimes.com.