Fishers, Ind., July 31, 2009—Employees at Sallie Mae’s Fishers, Ind., facility raised 35,000 food items for the Gleaners Food Bank—the largest-ever employee food drive conducted in the food bank’s history.

Under the theme “Hunger Never Takes a Vacation,” Sallie Mae employees rallied to help Indianapolis-area kids who over the summer miss out on the nutritious meals they receive at school. Spirited competition resulted in employees surpassing the original goal of 10,000 by day two of the week-long drive.

“Sallie Mae has been a faithful friend to the food bank for nearly a decade,” said Gleaners’ President and CEO Pamela Altmeyer. “Their record-breaking drive came at a perfect time for Indiana’s hungry.”

Sallie Mae employees expressed a variety of reasons for participating, including Renee La Forest, who eight years ago was the recipient of assistance from a food bank. Her daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor and the single mother left her job to see her child through treatments. Now that her daughter has recovered, La Forest rejoined the workforce as a computer programmer at Sallie Mae. “It feels great to give back,” she says. “I like to think that because of the Sallie Mae food drive, there are other struggling moms out there who can put food on their tables and send their children to sleep knowing they have been fed.”

Gleaners Food Bank assists a poverty population of over 200,000 Hoosiers, nearly 80,000 of whom are children. The organization serves over 400 hunger relief charities in over 20 central Indiana counties. Since opening its doors in 1980, Gleaners has distributed over 227 million pounds of food and critical grocery products to those in need. The nonprofit organization is the single most important source of food for most hunger relief charities in central Indiana. In 2008, the calls for food assistance in central Indiana increased by 45 percent, and food stamp information requests rose 75 percent.

Sallie Mae has had a presence in Indiana for nearly 20 years and employs approximately 1,600 Hoosiers in its Fishers facility and 2,300 statewide. Sallie Mae employees have given nearly 8,000 pounds of food to Gleaners Food Bank over the years. From 2001-2008, The Sallie Mae Fund, the company’s philanthropic arm, has given more than $7 million in scholarships, grants and employee matching gifts to students and nonprofits in Indiana.

For more information contact:
Debbie Wilson (317) 925-0191 x117 (Gleaners Food Bank)
Patricia Nash Christel (703) 984-5382 (Sallie Mae)