From left, front row: Canton Helpline Food Pantry (CHFP) volunteers Liz Bonanno and Steve Higgins, CHFP Coordinator Mary Murray, and Bank of Canton Directors Michael Galer and Linda Wirta. Back row: CHFP volunteers Mary Ellen Daly and Kim Bergeron, Bank of Canton Executive Vice President Michael Lindberg, past CHFP Co-Director Mary Buckley, and Bank of Canton VP/Retail Branch Administrator Eric Cappellano (NMLS #1076424).
CANTON, Mass. (December 19, 2024) – Bank of Canton recently donated $10,000 to the Canton Helpline Food Pantry to help serve the rising number of Canton families and individuals in need of assistance.
“We currently have more than 200 registered clients who shop with us,” said Mary Murray, coordinator at the Canton Helpline Food Pantry. “Bank of Canton’s kind donation will go a long way toward ensuring they have access to healthy food, milk and eggs, personal care items, and fresh produce from our donor partners in the community.”
Murray noted that the increase in the number of weekly shoppers is partially attributable to the pantry’s new, more secluded location in the back of the former St. Gerard Majella church. It offers greater discretion for those who were too self-conscious to come to the pantry’s former Rodman building location.
“We’re seeing many single parents with children, senior citizens, and others who seek temporary assistance to make ends meet,” Murray continued. “Budgets get stretched thin in the colder months – heating and electric bills, winter clothes, things like that. Some residents simply can’t afford everything.
“When I tell people we have homelessness in Canton, they don’t believe it. But we do. We do.”
Murray works closely with the Council on Aging to serve the town’s seniors, and she recently partnered with Canton High School to host a volunteer program for students and young adults with special needs to restock the shelves on Tuesdays.
“Mary Murray and the pantry’s volunteers work extremely hard in service to our community,” said Stephen P. Costello, president and CEO of Bank of Canton, “and it is with gratitude that Bank of Canton makes this donation to help support their work.”
Over the past twenty years, Bank of Canton has donated more than $215,000 to the Canton Helpline Food Pantry. The bank has been named among the top charitable contributors in Massachusetts for six consecutive years by the Boston Business Journal.
The pantry accepts non-perishable food (cereal, pasta, and pasta sauce are always appreciated), personal care items, and household products on Mondays between 8:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and by appointment. Bank of Canton’s branches at 557 Washington Street and 259 Turnpike Street in Canton also serve as drop-off locations Monday through Saturday during business hours.
The Canton Helpline, Inc., is a stand-alone non-profit 501(c)(3) organization funded by private donations and grants. For more information, visit https://cantonmahelpline.org/.
About Bank of Canton
Established in 1835, Bank of Canton is a Massachusetts-chartered mutual savings bank that offers its consumer, business and government banking customers access to a full array of deposit, loan, investment and convenience service options. As a mutual savings bank, the bank has no stockholders and acts exclusively in the best interests of its customers and communities. The bank lends throughout Massachusetts, and has branches in Canton, Quincy and Randolph and a mortgage center in Auburn. All deposits are fully insured between the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Depositors Insurance Fund (DIF). For more information, visit www.ibankcanton.com. Member FDIC. Member DIF. Equal Housing Lender. NMLS #408169.
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