George Town, Cayman Islands ,21 April 2020 – CIBC FirstCaribbean partnered with Kiwanis Club of Grand Cayman, the Department of Education and Feed Our Future to provide meals or supermarket vouchers to 553 children at the local primary and secondary schools through the Homeschool Lunch Programme.

Prior to the island-wide school closure, students across the 13 government schools received free breakfast, snacks and lunches on a daily basis. The number has been increasing daily with the recent closure of non-essential businesses.

Kiwanis Club of Grand Cayman Director Kadi Pentney stated, “We are so grateful for CIBC FirstCaribbean’s donation towards the Homeschool Lunch Programme. These funds will be used to support the Programme’s 553 students, and specifically will provide one meal per student!”

“Initially we planned for this programme to be for the six weeks that schools would be closed, but now we are planning for it to run until the end of August as long as we continue to receive support from the community and generous donors like CIBC FirstCaribbean,” she added.

At the discretion of each canteen, hot meals cost approximately KYD $6.50 and are delivered by district. However, with the number of Covid-19 cases on the rise, the majority of canteens and schools have expressed the need to switch from providing hot meals to supermarket vouchers to protect their staff. Lunch vouchers are KYD $6 per day for primary school students and KYD $8 per day for high school students, with the majority being provided by Foster’s Supermarket 5 days a week.

“CIBC FirstCaribbean is honored to support such worthy organizations with a donation in the amount of KYD$3,000.00. One of our missions during this health crisis has been to provide assistance to the communities we serve,” said Shadden McLuaghlin, EA to the Managing Director

“Thank you to Kiwanis Club of Grand Cayman, Department of Education and Feed Our Future for not only providing meals for those in need, but also providing nutritious meals that can help improve the health and well-being of our youth,” she said.

For further information about the Homeschool Lunch Programme kindly visit www.kiwanis.ky or contact Kadi Pentney at [email protected] or 916-8664.

About CIBC FirstCaribbean

CIBC FirstCaribbean is a relationship bank offering a full range of market leading financial services through our Corporate and Investment Banking, Retail and Business Banking and Wealth Management segments. We are located in sixteen (16) countries around the Caribbean, providing the banking services that fit our customers’ lives through approximately 3,000 employees in 68 branches and offices. We are one of the largest regionally listed financial services institutions in the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean, with over US$11 billion in assets and market capitalization of US $2 billion. We also have an office in Hong Kong. The face of banking is changing throughout the world and CIBC FirstCaribbean intends to lead these changes with the expertise, integrity and knowledge gained from banking in the Caribbean since 1836.

CIBC FirstCaribbean is a member of the CIBC Group. CIBC is a leading Canadian-based global financial institution with 11 million personal banking and business clients. Through our three major business units – Retail and Business Banking, Wealth Management and Capital Markets – CIBC offers a full range of products and services through its comprehensive electronic banking network, branches and offices across Canada with offices in the United States and around the world.

For more information about CIBC FirstCaribbean, visit www.cibcfcib.com , Facebook, Twitter , LinkedIn, Instagram or YouTube.