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Matz: Nationwide Effort Quadruples Donations and Provides 62,000 Meals

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Sept. 23, 2014) – In the coming months, thousands of people nationwide will be able to prepare healthy meals with food donated by National Credit Union Administration employees during the federal government’s annual Feds Feed Families (opens new window) food drive.

“For the first time, all NCUA offices and regions participated in Feds Feed Families, and the outcome was truly amazing,” NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz said. “Together, NCUA staff donated an amazing 92,950 pounds of food to give to families and children in need. We more than quadrupled the amount given last year to provide almost 62,000 meals.”

NCUA staff gave enough to feed 55 people three meals a day for an entire year. NCUA’s 2014 donation of nearly 76 pounds of food per employee is 321 percent larger than the agency’s 2013 contribution of 22,068 pounds. NCUA’s 92,950-pound donation is the equivalent to the weight of six large African elephants, 21 Ford F-150 pickup trucks, 62 trees, 13,286 average newborn babies, or 245,156 iPhones.

“The results speak volumes about the types of people who work for NCUA: people who take initiative and care,” Matz said. “This year, NCUA’s staff not only set a new record in terms of the amount of food they donated, but they were very creative in coming up with ways to make the food drive engaging.”

This year’s food drive included several new teambuilding activities, including lunchtime tournaments like Cornhole, the popular bean-bag tailgating game, as well as door decorating competitions and a “CANstruction” contest, in which offices built structures with cans of food they collected.

Food banks around the country benefited from NCUA’s donations. For example, donations by employees in NCUA’s Central Office went to the Capital Area Food Bank (opens new window). The food bank serves more than 530,000 people per year, about 12 percent of the Washington, D.C., area’s population. Donations included whole-grain foods, canned fruits and vegetables, soups and stews, high-protein foods, baking goods and baby food.

NCUA’s Region V office, in Tempe, Arizona, led the agency by contributing 25,227 pounds of food. Staff in NCUA’s Office of Examination and Insurance made the largest contribution from the agency’s Central Office, 12,521 pounds, and the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs came in a close second with 12,238 pounds. Working as one group, the NCUA Board and Office of the Executive Director gave 5,299 pounds.

The agency’s largest single donor in 2014 was again Todd M. Harper, NCUA’s Director of Public and Congressional Affairs. Harper, who chaired this year’s food drive at NCUA, personally donated 6,070 pounds of food.

In all, 78 NCUA employees reached donation levels that qualified them for the Feds Feed Families Hall of Fame: 20 reached the Platinum level (1,000 pounds or more), 26 reached the Gold level (500–1,000 pounds), and 32 reached the Silver level (250–500 pounds).

The sixth annual Feds Feed Families food drive ran June 1–Aug. 27, 2014. During the first five years of the food drive, federal workers have collected 24.1 million pounds of food and other non-perishable items to support families across America.