Two NH Nonprofit Projects Have A Million Reasons to Celebrate

From left: Tom Blonski, CEO of Catholic Charities; Joe Carelli, NH president of Citizens Bank; Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas, and Eileen Liponis, executive director of the NH Food Bank celebrate raising enough money to provide one million meals to NH residents.

Two NH charitable projects each have a million reasons to celebrate having hit some impressive milestones. 2-1-1NH has now helped more than 1 million NH residents connect with nonprofit resources while the Nothing Campaign has surpassed funding 1 million meals.

2-1-1 NH, an affiliate of Granite United Way, is telephone number that connects callers, at no cost, to information about critical health and human services available in their community. Over the past 10 years, the information and referral service has, through its call center and self referring website, helped over one million people.

The NH Food Bank and Citizens Bank recently announced that the Nothing Campaign has surpassed 1 million meals with donations totaling more than $567,000 over the past 5 years. The statewide campaign features cans of “nothing” representing the reality that thousands of NH residents have nothing to eat. Citizens Bank and the New Hampshire Food Bank launched the Nothing Campaign in NH in 2013 to spread awareness and raise funds for those in need—and the need is growing. In NH, 10 percent of residents, including 13 percent of children, are food insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal is coming from. Throughout April and May, participating grocery stores sold cans of nothing for $5 each to raise funds and awareness for the NH residents who have nothing to eat.

“Citizens Bank continues to be an incredible partner to the New Hampshire Food Bank, providing critical funding to support our ongoing effort to eliminate hunger in New Hampshire, and we are tremendously grateful for the support,” says Eileen Liponis, executive director of the NH Food Bank. “The New Hampshire Food Bank is able to turn every dollar donated into two nutritious meals, we can turn the $96,000 raised to date during this year’s Nothing campaign into 192,000 meals. While the need continues to grow, this support is making a profound impact on those who are most in need.”

To learn more, visit nhfoodbank.org/nothing.