Bank of America recently announced their $100 million contribution to support communities around the world during this time of need. As part of this effort, the bank is working with organizations that are going above and beyond to provide assistance in San Antonio to serve our most vulnerable populations amidst the coronavirus crisis. (San Antonio Food Bank, 2020)

In total, the bank is supporting local nonprofits in San Antonio with $375,000. Of this, $200,000 is going to the San Antonio Food Bank to address food insecurity – an urgent need in the community. In addition to food insecurity, the nonprofits the bank is supporting are focused on homelessness, emergency childcare services and child abuse and neglect.

The six local nonprofits receiving support from Bank of America include the San Antonio Food Bank, Haven for Hope, SA Hope Center, Soldiers’ Angels, ChildSafe and United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County.

The San Antonio Food Bank supports 16 counties in the San Antonio area and a total population of 2.5 million. Historically, the Food Bank serves approximately 60,000 families per week, but demand has recently doubled. This contribution from Bank of America will help the Food Bank purchase food and supplies needed to provide to families.

Haven for Hope is a 22-acre facility providing emergency shelter and transformational services and resources to individuals, families and children experiencing homelessness. The organization will utilize these funds to compensate staff overtime and temp workers, purchase additional critical supplies such as food, sleeping mats and activities for children and increase cleaning and janitorial services during the coronavirus pandemic.

SA Hope Center is a resource center empowering individuals and families in crisis to become sustainable through holistic individualized services, accountability and grace. Bank of America’s support will go directly towards providing food services to the most vulnerable population served by SA Hope Center. The food service center historically services an average of 100 families per week and is currently serving 1,100 families, or over 3,300 people, per week given an increase in demand.

Soldiers’ Angels provides aid and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, their families and a growing veteran population. Bank of America’s support will help Soldiers’ Angels provide box lunches and mobile food pantries for military families and veterans during this coronavirus pandemic. The organization saw a 40% increase in food requests in March and anticipates this will continue to be the case, if not higher, in April and May.

ChildSafe provides expert care and specialized services to children and adolescents who have been traumatized by abuse, neglect or sexual abuse. The organization has found that child abuse spikes during times of uncertainty and high stress, when financial burdens, interruptions of childcare and school, take its toll on families. With the City of San Antonio’s shelter-in-place order, cases of child abuse in March increased by 18% compared to the same period the year before. ChildSafe will utilize these funds to continue to provide wraparound services to handle the influx of cases they are seeing locally.

The United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County has established a COVID-19 Community Response Fund to help address the immediate and long-term needs of our community. Bank of America’s support will go directly to United Way’s Emergency Childcare Assistance program, which provides childcare for essential workers.

“At Bank of America, supporting our communities and responding to some of the biggest challenges we face in Bexar County is what we do. Many of our local residents and businesses, like others around the world, are hurting during the coronavirus crisis, and by working with leading local nonprofits, we are able to deploy critical resources to immediately address some of their most pressing, basic needs.” – Jessica Miller, Bank of America San Antonio Market President.