Employees Wear Jeans, Food Shelves Gain Generous Donations During Minnesota Foodshare Month

MAPLE GROVE, MN--(Marketwire - Apr 18, 2012) - For the month of March employees of TopLine Federal Credit Union exchanged donations of food and cash to the Community Emergency Assistance Program (CEAP) and Keystone Community Services food shelves for the chance to wear jeans on Fridays and Saturdays. When the program ended on March 31^st TopLine employees and members had donated over 550 pounds of food and $244 in cash to help restock the local agencies food shelves. Demand for food has risen; from January through March 2011, food shelf visits increased by 7.5% from 2010.

In 2010, there were more than three million visits to Minnesota food shelves. According to the Twin Cities Hunger Initiative, of those visiting food shelves: 50% are children, 11% are children that skip meals regularly due to a lack of food, 43% are parents skipping meals due to a lack of enough food, 20% are senior citizens and 43% have jobs, but need to choose to between paying for food and paying other bills like rent, utilities or medications.

This year's March FoodShare campaign has been a rousing success and a record breaking month for CEAP as they raised $214,324 and 102,725 pounds of food for families in need for Hennepin and Anoka counties. Keystone received $58,099 and 44,436 pounds in food donations to help Ramsey county families in crisis.

All donations made to CEAP were matched dollar-for-dollar or dollar-per-pound by the Feinstein Foundation -- a non-profit that donated up to $1 million to food shelves across the nation in March.

Employees were able to participate by donating money and/or food to the food drive in exchange for a "Denim Days" sticker, allowing them to wear jeans to work on Fridays and Saturdays during the four-week program.

"TopLine employees and members once again demonstrated their support for the community during the annual food drive event," says Harry Carter, TopLine president and CEO. "Food shelves are seeing a huge rise in families in crisis, needing food, and our employees and generous members continue to eagerly help serve our community."

CEAP (Community Emergency Assistance Program), serving Hennepin and Anoka Counties, is a community-based, non-profit agency that partners with other resources to assist people in need. The mission of CEAP is to stabilize individuals and families in financial distress and to maximize their ability to live independently and with dignity. Visit www.CEAP.com to learn more.

Keystone Community Services is a community-based volunteer organization in St. Paul that helps thousands of low-income individuals and families in the East Metro Area. Keystone's mission is to strengthen the capacity of individual and families to improve their quality of life. Visit www.keystoneservices.org to learn more.

TopLine Federal Credit Union, a Twin Cities-based credit union, is Minnesota's 13^th largest, with assets of more than $300 million. Established in 1935, TopLine offers a complete line of financial services from its five locations -- in Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Maple Grove, Plymouth and in St. Paul's Como Park -- as well as by phone and online at www.TopLinecu.com. Membership is available to anyone who lives, works, worships, attends school or volunteers in Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott or Washington Counties and their immediate family members.