News

First Harvest Credit Union employees recently collected donations for two local South Jersey organizations. Through First Harvest’s Charitable Journey program, employees raised $2,000 for the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Vineland. Employees also participated in an animal shelter donation drive resulting in over 150 essential items collected for the Gloucester County Animal Shelter.

Charitable Journey is an employee-led program established in 2015 by a volunteer group of First Harvest employees with a passion to serve our community. Each quarter, employees nominated different organizations they support, and Charitable Journey volunteers randomly select one organization to receive the contribution. During the second quarter of the year, employees raised $1,076 for the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Vineland. The organization aims to provide the finest residential and skilled nursing care for veterans and works to respond and adapt to their changing health care needs.

During the month of June, team members also took part in an animal shelter donation drive, which benefitted the Gloucester County Animal Shelter. Essential items needed by the shelter include blankets, towels, pet food, litter, toys, and cleaning products. First Harvest employees collected more than 150 of these items for the shelter.

“Our credit union’s People Helping People philosophy includes supporting the organizations in our community who are in great need of essential donations,” stated First Harvest President & CEO, Mike Dinneen. “First Harvest is a longstanding community member of Gloucester and Cumberland Counties, and it is our responsibility to support our fellow community partners. Our donation drive and Charitable Journey contributions that took place this summer are wonderful examples of our credit union’s empathy and our mission to support the communities we serve. In addition to our team’s monetary donations, we also provide our employees with paid time off for purposes of volunteerism, and through June, we’ve already doubled the amount of volunteerism hours performed by our staff from 2023. We are proud of our team’s efforts in contributing funds, goods, and time to our community.”