San Antonio, TX (June 16, 2020) – For thousands of San Antonio children, school isn’t just nourishing their minds, it is also nourishing their bodies. These students depend on their school for meals and may go hungry without them. In some San Antonio school districts, over 90% of children qualify for free or reduced lunch. While classrooms are closed, many schools are still bustling with activity to make sure students don’t go hungry.
As a result of the Coronavirus, schools had to quickly change the way they operate. Teachers transitioned their classrooms online, and schools provided supplies and meals through curbside pickup. The rapid shift resulted in substantial unplanned costs. With larger school districts serving up to 27,000 student meals per day, the need for packaging materials and distribution bags became enormous. To ease the burden, Firstmark Credit Union has donated 100,000 meal pickup bags for food distribution.
“We have close relationships with San Antonio schools, and we know how important the food nutrition program is to district families,” said Nathanael Tarwasokono, president and CEO of Firstmark Credit Union. “The bag donation is filling a much needed resource, and we are proud to support all of our school districts.”
Last month at its corporate headquarters, Firstmark held a curbside pickup for curriculum and meal bags. To date, 88,000 meal bags have been distributed. Schools interested in receiving meal bags can call the Firstmark Credit Union Marketing Department at 210.556.2480 and leave call back details, including name, school/ISD and number of meal bags needed.
As a credit union founded by teachers for teachers, Firstmark continues to champion the education community. In addition to the meal pickup bags, Firstmark recently provided 10,000 curriculum bags to San Antonio schools for curbside distribution of lesson plans. The credit union also offers educator discounts, educator grants, and back to school loans. To learn more about Firstmark’s efforts, visit firstmarkcu.org.
About Firstmark Credit Union
Firstmark Credit Union has been helping people for more than 88 years. The Firstmark story began in 1932 at Fox Tech High School where ten teachers signed a charter to form the San Antonio Teachers Credit Union. Firstmark has grown the ten teachers’ original $475 investment to almost 100,000 members and over $1 billion in assets. Firstmark is a not-for-profit, member-owned financial institution focused on helping people to better their lives. For more information, visit http://firstmarkcu.org or call 210.342.8484.
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