Even before most companies, including Mizuho, shifted to working from home, the Mizuho USA Foundation began reaching out to its community partners and others to assess emergency relief needs for the burgeoning COVID-19 crisis. Since then, Mizuho Tokyo and other Mizuho entities in the US increased their grant pool and expanded their scope nationwide to provide much-needed funding to overwhelmed nonprofits. Preference was given to those organizations providing food to a rapidly expanding food insecure population, as well as financially-challenged hospitals with large constituencies of low-income patients.
“Your support goes directly to sharing food with our community during this unprecedented crisis and helping to navigate an uncertain future,” wrote Paul Ash, Executive Director of the SF-Marin Food Bank in a letter of thanks to Mizuho. His organization is currently distributing food to nearly double the number of households they served before the pandemic.
“Your generous gift will help make it possible for Citymeals on Wheels to provide the nourishing, home-delivered meals that thousands of elderly New Yorkers need to maintain their health during the pandemic,” said Beth Shapiro, Executive Director of Citymeals on Wheels. “We’ve added thousands of recipients to our delivery routes since the start of the pandemic. The good news is that thanks to the support of friends like you, we have been able to meet the ongoing need for emergency food for of elderly New Yorkers and we are prepared to continue to respond as long as necessary.”
A total of half a million dollars in contributions has been distributed as of this writing. They are providing desperately-needed help to six organizations to support emergency food programs where many Mizuho employees live, work, and often volunteer, as well as to two organizations addressing urgent health care and other emergency needs in NYC and across the US:
- Citymeals on Wheels, NY
- Community FoodBank of New Jersey
- Greater Chicago Food Depository
- Houston Food Bank
- Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
- San Francisco-Marin Food Bank
- Greater New York Hospital Foundation’s COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund - to help financially-challenged hospitals hire more staff and purchase PPE supplies not covered by government sources. Our donation targets hospitals in serving large numbers of uninsured and under-insured patients to help acquire necessary supplies and personnel.
- Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Response Fund - to support national nonprofits serving vulnerable members of US communities with needed resources, particularly healthcare services and equipment.
Contributions provided by Mizuho Financial Group (Tokyo), Mizuho Securities USA, Mizuho Bank (USA), and Mizuho USA Foundation.