American Bank of Freedom in Montgomery City made huge donations to three different organizations in a span of nine days.

The bank donated $10,000 each to NRG Packs, Justine PETERSEN and Reach Community Church. Staff members such as Carol Hopper, Elizabeth Schmidt and Adam Haliger attended all three check presentations.

“We’re just so excited to be able to do this,” said Hopper, who is the bank’s vice-president/compliance officer.

Hopper said she found out in early July that Federal Home Loan Bank in Des Moines was offering matching funds for donations to not-for-profit organizations. American Bank contacted the organizations and requested paperwork from them. All of them were approved.

“The not-for-profit had to have a good use of funds from the Federal Home Loan Bank for them to match the funds,” Hopper said. “This will go strictly to food, nothing else. No administrative costs whatsoever.”

NRG Packs provides food for students who attend all four schools in the Montgomery County R-II School District plus Immaculate Conception School in Montgomery City. The organization began in 2014 and has donated 51,940 bags of food. It spends $20,000 annually on food. All donations go toward food purchases and there are no administrative costs.

“It’s crazy how many meals they serve,” Hopper said.

Janet Stumbaugh served as the NRG Packs representative at the presentation, which was held on Aug. 4.

Two days later, representatives from Justine PETERSEN received their donation. Based in St. Louis, Justine PETERSEN helps people access safe and affordable credit.

“That organization helped to provide funding for small businesses that are like start up businesses that may not qualify for a bank,” Hopper said. “They also do some real estate lending since regulations have tightened down so much on who we can lend to as banks. They provide funding for them. They’re a St. Louis organization. However, they want to be more rural. So they reached out to us and asked if we would want to partner to kind of get their name out there.”

Chief Revenue Officer Aida Richardson said the organization wants small businesses to get better rates so they could be successful.

“We work with them to see where the issues are,” she said. “Sometimes their challenges can be on personal credits, sometimes it’s a startup and sometimes business struggle with the cash flow. So we work with them on a plan. Then, we finance whatever issues the businesses need help with.”

American Bank made its check presentation to Reach Church on Aug. 13. Pastor Chris Meyer was the church’s representative. Reach Church has a food pantry called Feeding MOCO, which distributes food every Tuesday afternoon near the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.