CPB Foundation Contributes $1.5 Million In Support Of Hawaii Communities

HONOLULU, HI | February 04, 2021 –Central Pacific Bank Foundation (CPB Foundation) announced that it has contributed more than $1.5 million in 2020 to help local communities. By providing funding, leadership, and people power, CPB Foundation focused on helping those most underserved and vulnerable, small businesses, and nonprofit partners survive and thrive beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on Hawaii. While we remain fully dedicated to caring for our employees and customers, we, like many organizations, have invested in our community – doing our part to forge a bright path forward for our economy and all of Hawaii’s people,” said Catherine Ngo, Chair, Central Pacific Bank Foundation.

To meet the needs of those hardest hit by the pandemic, CPB Foundation provided emergency relief in the areas of food insecurity and healthcare at the onset of the pandemic, and throughout 2020. Below are a few highlights.

• Keep Hawaii Cooking powered by CPB Foundation: The program, which launched during the first lockdown, encouraged local families to order takeout from local restaurants by “splitting the bill” and covering 50 percent of the tab. Over 10,000 meals were shared with a total reimbursement of over $300,000, driving more than $600,000 worth of business to local restaurants. Grants were also provided directly to restaurants, who in turn delivered nutritious takeout, or “Mahalo Meals,” to frontline, emergency response workers throughout the State.
• Chef Hui Give & Go Community Meal Program: In collaboration with Chef Hui; SamKoo Hawaii, LLC; ALTRES; and Aloha Harvest, CPB Foundation sponsored more than 800 meals, with CPB employees volunteering to help distribute across three sites on Oahu. 
• Wahiawa General Hospital: As a vital resource for the residents of Central Oahu and the North Shore, funding helped to increase the hospital’s frontline medical response capacity.
• AlohaTrace & AlohaSafe: A community-driven data collection and contact tracing family of tools, CPB Foundation partnered with organizations including the University of Hawaii, the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center, the Pacific Urban Resilience Lab, and the Hawaii Executive Collaborative, just to name a few. 

CPB Foundation invested in resources and tools to help Hawaii small businesses survive, to save jobs, and fuel our economy with diversified opportunities. Several are listed below, though economic recovery is an ongoing area of long-term commitment.

• Made in Hawaii Festival presented by CPB Foundation & Mahi Pono: CPB Foundation helped the Hawaii Food Industry Association pivot their in-person event to a virtual experience. Over the three-day Statehood Day launch weekend, the Made in Hawaii Festival website attracted 100,000 unique visitors, surpassing the 60,000 attendees at their in-person event, while providing Hawaii small businesses a global e-commerce platform to provide the largest collection of locally sourced and made products that will continue to operate 24/7.
• Mana Up Showcase: Mana Up, an accelerator program for Hawaii-based retail, beauty, and food product companies, broadcasted live their annual Product Showcase event live online for the first time, with financial support from CPB Foundation, reaching 80,000 viewers across the globe.
• TRUE Initiative: TRUE aims to accelerate the adoption of technology and innovation through collaboration and sharing of solutions to common business problems, an increasingly important role given the effects of the pandemic. Through hands-on leadership and financial support from CPB Foundation, TRUE provided access to leaders, workshops, and programs on topics ranging from using AI to optimize customer service, accelerating digital transformation, and leveraging online tools for remote workforces.

CPB Foundation also awarded grants to help nonprofit partners facing new challenges in adjusting their programs, fundraising, communications, and general operations in the midst of the pandemic.

• Virtual Okinawan Festival: CPB Foundation provided a grant to the host non-profit, the Hawaii United Okinawan Association, enabling the first-ever virtual Okinawan Festival which attracted a worldwide audience of over 60,000 over three days of virtual events aimed at providing family-friendly cultural and educational content for the community. 
• The Salvation Army’s Rescue Christmas: Over the past 10 years, CPB and CPB Foundation helped to raise over $1 million in supporting The Salvation Army with their Angel Tree Campaign and Red Kettle campaigns. In 2020, CPB Foundation’s funding helped Salvation Army shift to a virtual fundraising format, while still providing help and hope to Hawaii’s children and seniors most in need.

In addition to the work of CPB Foundation, CPB employees extended their leadership, time, and care to the community, contributing over 6,500 hours of service to more than 100 non-profit organizations throughout 2020. CPB employees joined CPB Foundation in raising more than $420,000 during the bank’s 2020 Aloha United Way Campaign, which was dispersed to a host of non-profit organizations of employees’ designation across Hawaii. Finally, to end the year in the spirit of giving, CPB Foundation earmarked $200,000 to donate to non-profit organizations, on behalf of employees and customers. CPB employees had the opportunity to nominate and select by popular vote, several non-profit beneficiaries addressing a range of causes such as animal welfare; support for children, women, seniors and families; homelessness; drug and alcohol rehabilitation; food insecurity; housing; and education across Honolulu, Maui, Kauai, and Big Island counties.

About the Central Pacific Bank Foundation
Central Pacific Bank Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Central Pacific Bank, is committed to strengthening Hawaii communities through partnerships, collaborations, and signature programs that provide investment and leadership in providing support to Hawaii residents and businesses where it’s needed most and by helping Hawaii define a path to a brighter future. Central Pacific Bank is the primary subsidiary of Central Pacific Financial Corp., a Hawaii-based bank holding company with approximately $6.6 billion in assets. Central Pacific Bank operates 31 branches and 69 ATMs in the State of Hawaii, as of December 31, 2020. As of February 04, 2021, four branches are temporarily closed to protect the health and well-being of the Company's employees and customers from COVID-19. For additional information, please visit the Company’s website at cpb.bank.