ING DIRECT Provides Educational Tools for Children Served by Food Bank of Delaware

WILMINGTON, Del., Sept. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Children served by the Food Bank of Delaware will be sporting new backpacks filled with school supplies as a result of ING DIRECT's recent Orange Days of Giving project. Two hundred and twenty backpacks will be donated by the Food Bank of Delaware on Saturday, September 17 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Claymont Fire Company. Together, ING DIRECT and the Food Bank will equip the children of the Wilmington community with the tools necessary to have a successful school year.  

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110825/NE58106LOGO )

"Having the proper tools to effectively do your job improves the outcome for every work situation, and school work is no different," said Arkadi Kuhlmann, President and CEO of ING DIRECT USA. "ING DIRECT values the opportunity to work with the Food Bank of Delaware to provide supplies for the children as they begin the school year."

"We appreciate the continued generosity of ING DIRECT," said Food Bank of Delaware President and CEO, Patricia Beebe. "With nearly one in four Delawareans depending on our services – 44 percent of them being children under the age of 18 – the backpacks donated by our friends at ING DIRECT will ensure that students start the school year off on the right foot."

The ING DIRECT backpacks contain the following items:

• Notebooks, loose leaf paper and a three-ring binder
• Safety scissors and hand sanitizer
• Pocket folders
• Composition books
• Pens, pencils, markers and glue sticks
• Crayons, erasers, and colored pencils

ING DIRECT's Orange Days of Giving was created in 2007 as a way for the Associates to share their time and talent with the Communities in which they live and work and all projects are organized and executed entirely by Associate committees from various departments throughout the bank. To date, ING DIRECT Associates throughout the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast locations are proud to have dedicated more than 64,000 hours during the Orange Days of Giving toward charitable causes that support the bank's mission of providing economic empowerment, financial education and life skills.

About The Food Bank of Delaware:
The Food Bank of Delaware distributes between seven and ten million pounds of food and grocery products each year through its network of  hunger-relief program partners throughout the state and also provides thousands of meals a month for children through the After-School Nutrition Program, the Summer Food Service Program and the Backpack Program. The Food Bank's hunger-relief programs directly provide for 241,600 Delawareans at risk of going without meals each year. For more information about the Food Bank of Delaware, visit www.fbd.org or call (302) 292-1305.

About ING DIRECT USA
ING DIRECT, the nation's largest direct bank and largest thrift, is dedicated to inspiring Americans to become a nation of savers. Since its inception in 2000, more than 7.7 million Americans have entrusted their savings with ING DIRECT, building the bank to nearly $91.4 billion in assets. ING DIRECT has developed a comprehensive social media Savers Community, including Twitter, Facebook and its We, The Savers blog. For more information about ING DIRECT call 1-800-ING-DIRECT, and for information about its commitment to financial education visit Planet Orange(SM).

Style note to Editors: ING DIRECT is always capitalized and never referred to as ING.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Tara Fish, ING DIRECT USA
(302)888-0569
[email protected]

SOURCE ING DIRECT USA