More than 1,000 National Grid employees are giving back to their local communities today to celebrate a Day of Service across the company’s 26,000-square-mile New York service area. Company employees are reaffirming their spirit of altruism across the state by volunteering at food banks, Habitat for Humanity and Meals on Wheels, as well as stocking student backpacks and food warehouses, supplying PPE, cleaning up neighborhoods and parks, providing STEM education, offering energy affordability solutions, and much more. 

    The initiative is part of Project C, National Grid’s Community Commitment to:

• Connect our communities to clean and sustainable energy.
• Care for our neighborhoods and their revitalization.
• Compassionately address the challenges our customers face, including environmental justice and social equity.
• Create the workforce that will help build New York’s clean energy delivery system.
• Collaborate with our customers, community partners, stakeholders and so many others to deliver the clean, fair, resilient and affordable energy future.

“We have a long and proud history of giving back to the communities we serve,” said Rudy Wynter, National Grid’s New York president. “My colleagues and I are carrying on that tradition by recommitting to our customers and our neighborhoods. Donating our time, skills, passion and expertise is at the heart of who we are. We’re launching Project C today to ensure we never lose sight of that.”  

Dedicated teams of National Grid colleagues spent months planning and partnering with nonprofit organizations, schools, community centers, parks and other groups to deliver the diverse activities taking place today across the company’s New York footprint.

In Eastern New York, area students will meet with National Grid lineworkers to learn about STEM education and careers in energy. In addition, colleagues will harvest crops for the regional food bank, cleanup community parks, donate supplies to a local animal shelter, distribute essential items at an area community action facility, and donate time and skills to a domestic shelter and a camp for children with disabilities.

In Central New York, employees are packing boxes of food to combat hunger and food insecurity for children on non-school days, when free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch cannot be accessed. Other groups are participating in park cleanups, property beautification projects at local nonprofits, cooking and serving food at local shelters and delivering Meals on Wheels.

In Western New York, lineworkers are delivering Meals on Wheels, while other volunteers are painting a homeless shelter, and distributing backpacks, winter coats, sneakers, groceries, toiletries, PPE and more.

In the New York Metro area, volunteers are partnering on various cleanups including New York City’s Brookville Park in Queens, Calvert Vaux Park in Coney Island and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Volunteers also will clean and weed tree beds on Bay Street in Downtown Staten Island.

On Long Island, volunteers are beautifying parks, train stations and veterans’ homes, as well as installing new flag poles at a veteran’s park and volunteering at food pantries and senior centers. 

In addition to neighborhood-based events, National Grid is partnering with nonprofit organizations that represent a cross-section of New York’s communities to conduct a letter-writing campaign. Hundreds of employees will write letters of advice, encouragement, unity and solidarity to support a diverse population – from grade school and college students, to rural working families, senior citizens and veterans -- to ensure they know they are recognized and valued.

“While this one-day effort provides an opportunity for us to give back on a large scale, our commitment to the communities where we live and work stretches well beyond a single day,” Wynter said. “For example, as part of our companywide Responsible Business Charter, National Grid has committed to achieving 500,000 volunteering hours over the next 10 years. In addition, in New York we contribute more than $5 million annually to community-based organizations through our Corporate Citizenship efforts, including our National Grid Foundation.” 

Along with volunteerism, Project C focuses on four key priorities: clean energy and sustainability; workforce development; neighborhood investment and community engagement; and environmental justice and social equity. The initiative is funded by National Grid shareholders.

"Project C provides us with focused attention and resources to address these key issues.” Wynter said. “It’s our promise to our customers that we will show up in our communities even stronger than we have in the past. We’re thinking beyond our conventional energy delivery services and helping to create a more equitable future for every customer and neighborhood we serve.”

The program provides a number of key new offerings for customers and communities, including:

The Neighborhood Investment Program, which will revitalize local communities by supporting and fostering energy, education and community development projects. Through this program, grants will be provided to nonprofits, faith-based organizations, cultural institutions and recreational programs.  

Small Business Technical Assistance Grants, which offer funding for regional and local economic development partners to provide direct outreach and technical guidance to small businesses in National Grid’s service area.

Adopt a Park, which will preserve green spaces and restore local parks to their natural beauty. National Grid will partner with municipalities and nonprofit organizations to provide funding that supports the revitalization of community parks and pocket parks across the company’s New York footprint. 

Grid for Good, which connects young people with opportunities in the energy industry, provides 16-to 24-year-olds with skills and career development to help boost social mobility and employability. The program is delivered by employee volunteers and our charity partners.

Leave it Better, which supports community projects that would ease the impact of National Grid construction work by restoring impacted areas or creating an offsetting community benefit. 

Click here for more about National Grid’s Project C.

About National Grid

About National Grid: National Grid (NYSE: NGG) is an electricity, natural gas, and clean energy delivery company serving more than 20 million people through our networks in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. National Grid is transforming our electricity and natural gas networks with smarter, cleaner, and more resilient energy solutions to meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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