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Over 800 M&T employees to volunteer to assemble blankets & hats for local organizations
Press Release
M&T Bank’s Western New York Community Impact Week begins Monday, Oct. 28, with special volunteer efforts that will help people in need find warmth through new, handmade blankets and hats. Over 800 M&T employees have volunteered to make over 700 fleece blankets and 630 hats, which will be given to local organizations – including the Buffalo City Mission, Every Bottom Covered, Beds4Buffalo, Journey’s End Refugee Services, Salvation Army, and The Teacher’s Desk – to distribute to local families and individuals experiencing hardships.
M&T Bank organizes WNY Community Impact Week every fall and spring, mobilizing its local workforce to lead communitywide volunteer initiatives that help nonprofits meet urgent needs and serve more Western New Yorkers. In total, 1,300 M&T employees will be volunteering during this fall 2024 edition of WNY Community Impact Week.
In addition to the blanket and hat-making activities, M&T Bank employees will spread across Western New York later this week to lead volunteer projects for over a dozen different local groups. For example, on Thursday, 15 M&T volunteers will spend the morning packing essential food bags at the Harvest House’s food pantry – and 40 more volunteers will support a “trunk-or-treat” event at Frank A. Sedita Academy on Buffalo’s West Side, where they will decorate their cars for Halloween and distribute candy to help students celebrate the holiday in a fun and safe way that is accessible to all.
Throughout the week, M&T employees will be volunteering to support FeedMore WNY, Habitat for Humanity, Leveling the Playing Field, Olmsted Parks, St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy, Stitch Buffalo, The Grace Guest House and The Tool Library.
Held for the first time in November 2022, WNY Community Impact Week emphasizes the meaningful and collective impact that can be made when M&T’s local workforce of nearly 8,000 individuals works together to meet community needs. Since 2022, over 2,000 M&T employees have participated in WNY Community Impact Week, providing over 20,000 volunteer hours to local nonprofits as well as thousands of blankets, 10,000 canned food items, and over 1 million pencils for local children.
WNY Community Impact Week bolsters M&T’s year-round community efforts. Last year alone, M&T employees provided over 81,900 hours of volunteer service in Western New York, and M&T Bank donated more than $8 million to over 340 local nonprofits.