$1 million granted by Bank of America for Feeding America

The Bank of America Charitable Foundation donated $1 million to Feeding America (formerly known as America’s Second Harvest), the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization, to help provide food and groceries to the dramatically increasing number of hungry people in the U.S. According the report released by Feeding America last week the number of Americans seeking emergency food assistance increased significantly for the first time.

Demand at Feeding America’s food banks increased an average of 30% in a single year while many other food banks report even higher increases. In light of such a surge in the number of hungry people many food pantries and soup kitchens fail to meet the needs of such individuals who seek for food assistance. Thus, a large part of the grant funded by the Bank of America will be used to assist food banks that provide food and groceries to hundreds of food pantries, soup kitchens, Kids Cafes, senior meal programs and other emergency feeding programs countrywide.

Bank of America is a longstanding supporter of food banks across the country, having donated more than $900,000 and provided nearly 4,000 employee volunteer hours this year alone in addition to this $1 million grant. Bank of America plans to expand its employee volunteer efforts supporting this cause and will announce specific plans to that end in early 2009.