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Teammates in the community.

August 18, 2010
Andy Ditton, Citi Community Capital

Despite all that I've seen through the years, I recently had my first encounter with 25,000 pounds of apples. That sounds like a lot of apples and, take it from someone who probably handled thousands of them himself, it is. I was one of around 30 Citi volunteers who gathered in the Citi Field parking lot for a "Teammates in the Community" event (along with some great Mets alumni including Rusty Staub and Cleon Jones) to repack the apples -- donated in tremendous cardboard bins by a Pennsylvania farmer -- into small bags that could be redistributed by City Harvest to hungry people in New York.

Twenty-five thousand pounds of apples is an eye-opener. So is this: More than one million New York City residents rely on emergency food at some point during the year, including nearly 350,000 children and more than 140,000 elderly people, according to City Harvest estimates.

That's why my colleagues and I were glad to be part of the effort to help. The fact is, we're not just bankers -- we're members of the community. And, like Citi itself, we feel a commitment to give back to our communities. It was sweaty work under a blazing sun in the Citi Field parking lot that day, but what I saw mostly (besides apples) were smiles on my colleagues' faces.

At Citi Community Capital (CCC), I'm glad to be part of a team that does some repacking of its own, every day, on behalf of communities. We take Citi funds and parcel them out as financing for affordable housing and essential infrastructure projects around the country. Many people think of "Citi" as the institution backing up the Citibank credit card in their wallets. That's certainly true, but did you know that if you drive through any major city in the United States, some of the hospitals and schools and affordable housing developments that you pass likely were built with CCC financing? For a lot of folks, that's an eye-opener too -- one that makes me very proud.

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