Credit Unions Fill Food Banks & Support Youth Organizations

Representatives from the San Diego-based, $370 million Cabrillo Credit Union and San Diego Border Patrol Sector show off donated food on Sept. 15. Cabrillo participated in the Feds Feed Families food drive for the month of July, and between its four locations, employees and members contributed over 1,700 pounds of food benefiting the San Diego Food Bank. The San Diego Border Patrol Sector partnered with Cabrillo to collect more donations, and to support its efforts, the credit union left food collection boxes in each branch. Employees of the credit union alone collectively donated $1,000. At the end of July, the Border Patrol agents picked up boxes filled with food from each Cabrillo branch. Feds Feed Families is a government-wide campaign that encourages federal employees to donate food, services and time to food banks and pantries across the country.

Richard Forbis, former chair of Habitat for Humanity of North Carolina (left) and SECU Foundation Executive Director Jama Campbell commemorate the completion of the SECU Habitat Challenge. The affordable housing project, which started five years ago between the SECU Foundation – a 501(c)(3) charitable organization funded by the contributions of members of the $45.19 billion, Raleigh, N.C.-based SECU – HHNC and statewide Habitat affiliates, allowed Habitat for Humanity to build capacity and expand its presence in counties where no Habitat home had ever been built before. The Challenge entailed building one new or renovated home in each of North Carolina's 100 counties, and resulted in 102 families experiencing the benefits of home ownership through a nearly $11 million commitment by the SECU Foundation.

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Jackie Garrett, a volunteer at the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church Community Resource Center in Norcross, Ga. (left), and Deborah Fancher, business development representative for Peach State Federal Credit Union, pose for a photo amid piles of donated food collected by the credit union. The $619 million, Lawrenceville, Ga.-based Peach State FCU collects donations in each of its 25 branch locations and delivers the items to a food bank or pantry in its service area once a quarter.

High school students with the Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE) from South Grand Prairie High School in Grand Prairie, Texas pose in front of the Texas Trust Credit Union 1956 school bus before their 2019 Homecoming parade. Texas Trust Spirit Debit reward money was recently used by the school to help support the high school's TAFE program. The Texas Trust Spirit Debit Reward card has benefited six school districts in north Texas to the tune of $2 million. The nine-year-old program, which began with a handful of local high schools, has grown to support 22 high schools. More than 35,861 Texas Trust members are Spirit Debit cardholders. Schools earn money year round each time a cardholder makes an eligible debit card purchase with their Spirit Debit card. The schools receive a monthly check from Texas Trust, which they can spend as they wish. Schools routinely use the funds for extracurricular activities, field trips, beautification projects, class tools such as graphing calculators and books, and professional development training.

Jay Hall (right) of Ideal Credit Union presents a check for $1,000 from the Ideal Community Foundation to "Be the Change" charity golf tournament co-director and life-long friend John Baker to help with fundraising efforts for youth organizations. Hall, vice president of branches for the $823 million, Woodbury, Minn.-based Ideal, recently returned to his home town of North Minneapolis to support the tournament at Theodore Wirth Golf Course. Hall attended North High School, one of the beneficiaries of the "Be the Change" tournament, which is a new charitable event designed to bring people together who might not otherwise cross paths to build relationships through the game of golf and give back. Proceeds from the tournament will benefit photography students at North High School; the Heritage Youth Sports Foundation, which encourages youth development by providing opportunities for personal and athletic growth; Sprayfinger, which builds community partnerships around the process of graffiti writing as an artistic value; and the student-led effort to change the name of Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis.

From left to right, ELGA Credit Union's Anne Kirksey, Lori Hawk, Gretchen Mead and Karen Church (president/CEO); Catholic Charities President/CEO Vicky Schultz and Director of Development Theresa Hurley; and Elyssa Taljonick, David Brandt and Cheryl Sclater of ELGA show off a $25,000 donation. ELGA ($966 million, Burton, Mich.) presented Catholic Charities of Michigan's Shiawassee and Genesee Counties with the donation on Sept. 21. The credit union raised these funds through its annual Ginormous Tent Sale, a yard sale with several tents full of household goods, clothing, furniture and more. The sale proceeds, along with funds raised through internal associate fundraisers and proceeds from food vendors at the sale, were combined to reach the total donation. The donation will support Catholic Charities' three soup kitchens and counseling programs. Tent sale donations included items from St. John's Catholic Church in Davison, Mich., and ELGA associates. This year, Smokin' J's Barbeque of Goodrich, Mich., and Sugar Shack of Lansing, Mich., both set up at the tent sale and donated 25% of their sales to the fundraiser, helping to make this the most successful Ginormous Tent Sale yet.

Please send your Community news items to Natasha Chilingerian at [email protected].

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Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.