STCU donates $30,000 in restaurant gift cards to area nonprofits serving women

As part of its ongoing effort to support local recovery efforts during the pandemic, Spokane Teachers Credit Union announced this week it has purchased $30,000 worth of gift cards from locally-owned restaurants.

The cards will be donated primarily to organizations serving women in the region, as part of Women’s History Month, according to a news release.

“Restaurants and restaurant workers have been hard hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, and women have suffered the greatest financial losses of all,” STCU President and CEO Ezra Eckhardt said in the release. “These cards are a small piece of a much larger effort to help sustain and strengthen communities.”

STCU’s purchase of 600 restaurant gift cards, each worth $50, coincides with the Great Dine Out, a collaboration between the Inlander, STCU and 13 other banks and credit unions.

The purpose is to provide business for restaurants in Spokane and Kootenai counties, according to the news release.

The cards were given to 22 nonprofit groups to be regifted to their clients who may be in need of additional food assistance. The groups include YWCA Spokane, Women and Children’s Free Restaurant, Transitions, Safe Passage in Coeur d’Alene and Domestic Violence Services of Benton-Franklin County.

The program is another way STCU is highlighting contributions by local female leaders, according to the news release. Nine women and one man signed STCU’s articles of incorporation in 1934.

Founded by school teachers, women represent 72% of STCU staff and 64% of STCU’s leadership positions.