Citizens Bank grants $400,000 to nonprofits, provides meals

Seven Massachusetts nonprofit organizations received grants to better serve the community as a result of a $400,000 total pledge from Citizens Bank, according to a Tuesday press release.

Through its Citizens Helping Citizens Fight Hunger initiative, the bank will help the organizations provide emergency meals and nutritious food to families throughout the Commonwealth, said Andrew Hoglund, a spokesman for Citizens Bank.

“Our Citizens Helping Citizens program is a sustained campaign which strives to enhance quality of life and economic vitality in local communities in our footprint,” he said in an email. “Beyond our financial contributions, Citizens Bank remains very active in working with local organizations throughout Massachusetts on a volunteer basis.”

The seven organizations to receive the funds are The Greater Boston Food Bank, Bay Cove Human Services, Merrimack Valley Food Bank, The Family Pantry of Cape Cod, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Women’s Lunch Place and Worcester County Food Bank.

Several of the rewarded nonprofits said the bank’s generosity will help sustain everyday services. Erin Lee, a spokeswoman for GBFB, said the bank’s donation enables the organization to pursue its mission of providing at least one meal a day to someone in need.

“Citizens Bank’s donation supports The Greater Boston Food Bank’s efforts in ending hunger here in eastern Massachusetts…[and] therefore the donation helps us to get there,” she said in an email. “Citizens Bank’s donation has helped to provide 600,000 meals to those in need.”

Through past donations, Citizens Bank became a member of GBFB’s Leadership Circle, a select group of top donors who give at least $100,000 annually, Lee said.

David Hirschberg, vice president of development at Bay Cove Human Services, said the money will support programs for the elderly and those with developmental disabilities, mental illness or addiction at the agency.

“Bay Cove’s Kit Clark Senior Services provides more than 2,000 nutritious meals to our elder neighbors throughout Boston every day,” he said in a statement Friday. “We are grateful to the Citizens Bank Foundation for their leadership in alleviating hunger in our community and for their generous support of our program.”

Student Food Rescue, a program within the Boston University Community Service Center, donates food to GBFB on a weekly basis and occasionally volunteers to run events, said Program Manager Nicole St. Louis.

With the money, GBFB can expand on projects such as setting up mobile food banks for those who do not have access to transportation, St. Louis said.

“If they want to, they will expand that a lot with that kind of money,” St. Louis, a senior in Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said. “That’s a great thing because it will help expand outside the greater Boston area, which I think Massachusetts would really appreciate.”

Several residents said the initiative Citizens Bank supports mutually benefits both themselves and the community.

Adriana Phillips, 25, of Brighton, said beyond improvements to the bank’s brand name and reputation, the contributions send a greater message.

“It makes their efforts much more stronger if they keep doing this every year,” she said. “It shows that larger banks and corporations can do something nice too, not just one person or an organization, for the good of people here in New England to show that as a whole, we are a caring people.”

Ted Lague, 25, of the South End, said anything the bank can do to contribute to a good cause matters, regardless of why they chose to engage in the first place.

“It’s good to see a sizable corporation doing something like this,” he said. “This could have a ripple effect on other companies in Boston.”