Fifth Third Bank Celebrates National Garden Day by Gifting Three Community Gardens

Sustainable Vegetable Gardens to Help Inspire Healthier Choices in Food Desert Areas

CHICAGO, IL – On National Garden Day (May 9), Fifth Third Bank (Chicago) will announce plans to provide community gardens to three community organizations in some of the area’s largest food desert locations, including New Beginnings Church in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, the North Township Trustee Office in Hammond, Indiana and Northwest Community Center in Rockford, Illinois. The bank has engaged a garden expert to oversee the entire project and will provide all the plants, soil, supplies and hands-on training.

A press conference will be held Friday, May 9 at 10:30 a.m. (CST) @ Fifth Third Center (222 S. Riverside Plaza, located above Union Station at Adams & Canal, Chicago). Here, bank officials will officially present the gardens to the three community groups. At this time, each group will be presented with a large container garden to represent the larger gardens that will be built on the organization’s land. In advance, Bank employees and garden expert, Jessica Lyn Simic, will give out free seed pods and offer garden advice between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m.

The community gardens will complement the bank’s annual food relief efforts throughout Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana. This year, Fifth Third will donate 200,000 meals to the Northern Illinois Food Bank. However, according to Robert A. Sullivan, president and CEO of Fifth Third Bank (Chicago), it wanted to do more.

“We hope these gardens will inspire healthier food choices and help build unity in communities where nutritious food options have been limited and that these gardens are the first of many in the community for years to come,” Sullivan said.

According to the National Gardening Association, 35 percent of all households in America are growing food at home or in a community garden. Furthermore, since 2008, there has been a 29 percent increase in food gardening by people living in urban areas and two million more households also reported participating in community gardening, representing a 200 percent increase.