Cross County Savings Bank recently teamed up with The Kiwanis Club of Middle Village and Village Barn to host its 13th Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive.
The event was a major success, with the bank distributing over 300 turkeys across its six branches in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. This generous effort provided 300 families with a full Thanksgiving meal, including turkey and all the traditional trimmings.
What began in 2011 as a small initiative with just 25 turkeys has steadily grown into a much larger tradition, expanding every year to serve more families in need.
“There’s a lot of less fortunate people, and this is the time of year between the Kiwanis and Cross County Savings Banks to come together and put a smile on people’s faces, knowing that they’re able to get a meal that they don’t have to worry about paying for,” said Al Gentile, First Senior Vice President and Director of Branch Banking at Cross County Savings Bank.
The food drive is a gratifying experience, and Gentile remarked, “At the end of the day, it’s all about the smiles we put on children’s faces.”
“We’re a community bank. We focus on everything about community,” he added. “Anytime that we can make a positive impact on the communities that we serve, we look to do that all the time.”
Branch Ambassador Diane Marzuillo, UB Mauricio Romero, and Management Trainee Andrew Trumbetti volunteered their time alongside Gentile to help make the event successful. Nonperishable food donations were also distributed to several food pantries in the area.
Cross County Savings Bank is a local but historic financial institution that has been a part of the community for over 125 years. It started as Bushwick Savings & Loan Association of New York and has undergone various name changes since then, but it has always stuck to its core principle of putting the community first.
Their annual food drives are a great representation of this principle, showing that their aid to hundreds of families across New York goes a long way.
The Kiwanis Club of Middle Village also provided excellent support in this endeavor. It is an international service organization with local roots that consistently supports its community and surrounding neighborhoods, such as Glendale, Maspeth, and Ridgewood. Many more branches of the organization exist in New York and beyond.
