FirstBank and Pellissippi State partner to supplement food pantry during coronavirus

Also pledges $50,000 to build new Bill Haslam Center for
Math and Science and $10,000 to celebrate alumni

Brint Nall, Pellissippi State Campus Police corporal; image by PS.

KNOXVILLE - Employees and friends of FirstBank in Knoxville recently raised $3,000 to help Pellissippi State Community College supplement the food in its Pellissippi Pantry during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Pellissippi Pantry provides access to healthy foods for members of the Pellissippi State family who may be experiencing food insecurity. Every other week, participants may pick up orders that include prepackaged food and fresh organically grown produce from the Hardin Valley Campus Garden.

With the coronavirus pandemic causing shortages at local grocery stores, FirstBank employees stepped up and helped Pellissippi State supplement the food the college had on hand to distribute to more than 75 Pellissippi Pantry recipients the first week of April.

"The work of Pellissippi State's food pantry is vitally important to supporting the student community, and we're happy to see our FirstBank family rally around a cause that helps people build a better future," said FirstBank Knoxville Market President Nathan Hunter.

Pellissippi State set up distribution tents on three of its campuses - Blount County, Hardin Valley and Magnolia Avenue - and announced times during which Pellissippi Pantry recipients could pick up their food. Volunteers from the college placed the boxes and bags of food in each recipient's vehicle for a contact-less delivery.

This was just the latest way FirstBank, the third largest bank headquartered in Tennessee, has partnered with Pellissippi State in 2020.

FirstBank presents Pellissippi State with a donation to help build the new Bill Haslam Center for Math and Science and to sponsor the annual Annual Alumni and Friends. From left are Robert Baird and Nathan Hunter of FirstBank, Pellissippi State President L. Anthony Wise Jr., Chris Parrott of FirstBank, Pellissippi State Foundation Executive Director Aneisa Rolen and Rusty Harmon of FirstBank.; Image by PS.

Hunter presented Pellissippi State President L. Anthony Wise Jr. with a $60,000 donation -- $50,000 to help build the new Bill Haslam Center for Math and Science on the college's Hardin Valley Campus and $10,000 to sponsor Pellissippi State's annual Alumni and Friends Luncheon, which celebrates accomplishments of past Pellissippi State graduates.

"We're happy to be partnering with Pellissippi State to support the great work this school is doing in our community," Hunter said. "As a longtime resident of East Tennessee, I know how important Pellissippi State is to residents of this area, and we're proud to contribute to their alumni and students' success."

FirstBank's $50,000 gift to the Pellissippi State Foundation will help the college complete its new 82,000-square-foot Bill Haslam Center for Math and Science on the Hardin Valley Campus, which is now under construction and expected to open for classes in fall 2021.

The new building will help Pellissippi State, the largest community college in Tennessee, meet demands for classrooms and lab spaces that have increased due to Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect, last-dollar scholarships that provide two years of tuition-free attendance at a community or technical college in Tennessee.

The Bill Haslam Center for Math and Science will include 18 classrooms, six computer labs and nine science labs, as well as a teacher education center for the college's Early Childhood Development and Teacher Education programs. An Adjunct Faculty Suite in the building will be named in honor of FirstBank's generous contribution.

"Each contribution we receive for the new Bill Haslam Center for Math and Science allows us to offer greater access to required labs in the sciences," Wise said. "This new building will also include much needed classroom space for mathematics and teacher education as well as spaces for faculty and student collaboration. We appreciate our partners at FirstBank seeing the value of what we've proposed here and contributing to that vision."

FirstBank also will contribute $10,000 to Pellissippi State's annual Alumni and Friends Luncheon, which was scheduled for April 8 at the Foundry on the Fair Site but has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The winners of the college's Distinguished Alumni Award and the Peggy Wilson Alumni Volunteer Award, both selected by members of the Alumni Steering Committee, will be honored at the lunch.

Those award winners have not been announced.

For more information on Pellissippi State, visit www.pstcc.edu or call 865-694-6400.

Published April 23, 2020