Paducah Bank is pleased to announce that Marcella’s Kitchen, the 4-H Food Backpack Program, Paducah/McCracken County Senior Citizen Center Meals on Wheels program, and Paducah Cooperative Ministry will be the recipients of funds raised through the 2016 Paducah Bank Swipe & Serve Program. More than 750,000 Kentuckians, or 17% of the state’s population, do not always know where their next meal will come from. Close to one in four of Kentucky’s children lack consistent access to enough food for a healthy, active lifestyle. Paducah Bank is working to change that statistic. In total, Paducah Bank has donated over $60,000 to organizations who feed the hungry in our community and hopes to reach a $100,000 goal by the end of the year.
“Two years ago, we began a partnership with our customers to support our commitment to the needs of the community,” said Paducah Bank President Mardie Herndon. “Our Swipe and Serve project allows our customers to help us help those who are hungry in our city and county. With each signature-based debit card transaction that our customers make, we set aside a contribution to a local organization that helps feed the hungry. Our quarterly goal is $7,500, but we have continuously surpassed it.”
“The project has been so successful that we are continuing it into 2016,” said Susan Guess, senior vice president of marketing. “With your help, we hope to exceed our goal of $30,000 again this year!”
Marcella’s Kitchen is located in Marshall County and has been providing free hot meals to anyone in need since 2011. The organization is staffed by over 150 volunteers and has served over 70,000 meals to date. Volunteers use vans and buses to transport those who are hungry from all over Marshall County to the kitchen. No guest is ever asked to pay. The meals are paid for by donations only.
The 4-H Food Backpack program feeds more than 400 children every week in the Paducah City and McCracken County schools. The group feeds elementary through high school students with non-perishable items. The group works with the Family Resource Centers to identify hungry children in the schools. Student volunteers work with the 4-H project to retrieve and assemble the food items for final distribution to each of the city and county school’s hungry youth.
The Paducah/McCracken County Senior Center provides Meals on Wheels delivery for home-bound, senior adults in McCracken County. Last year, the Center delivered 20,747 meals to individuals over 60 years-old who were unable to leave their home and unable to prepare their own meals due to debilitating ailments. Many times, the delivery driver is the only human contact these individuals will have all day.
The Paducah Cooperative Ministry has been providing emergency groceries to needy households in the city and county since 1973. Local administrators have noted an unprecedented increase in need since 2012. The organization went from serving a monthly average of 350 households in 2012 to an average of 475 in 2013 and over 500 in 2014. The Ministry often distributes a four-to-five day supply of food to households and families in need. PCM provided emergency groceries on more than 6,000 occasions in 2014.
“The need is obviously present in our community to provide food and food services to those who cannot manage to put food on the table for themselves or their families,” said Herndon. “We hope, with the help of all of our customers, to reach a goal of $7,500 each quarter that can provide much-needed assistance to these four local food programs.”
Paducah Bank is an award-winning, locally-owned bank with banking centers in six locations in the city and county, and employing more than 130 people. Paducah Bank was named the Best Place to Work in Kentucky among medium-sized companies in 2006. In 2008, Paducah Bank was chosen by the Wall Street Journal as one of the nation’s Top 15 Small Workplaces and was named Best Bank in the Paducah Sun Readers’ Choice Awards in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Recently, the bank was named one of the Top 50 Banks in the nation for effective use of social media by ICBA. Paducah Bank was the only Kentucky bank to make the list.