Thank you for your support

Ameris Bank launched its 2nd Annual "Helping Fight Hunger" initiative during the month of October 2011, and bank-wide, 152,843 non-perishable food items and $8,986 in donations was collected. Ameris Bancorp pledged to match each item donated with a like food item or the monetary equivalent. With the support of this match, a total of 157,843 non-perishable food items and $121,148 in cash donations was donated to local food banks throughout our four-state footprint.

We are so proud of the results of our efforts and we are extremely thankful for the support from our employees, customers and the community. We all know that one food drive won't completely eliminate the need, but we hope it brought attention to a growing issue and provided help to our local food banks. Additionally, we thank our business partners who graciously agreed to display a collection box in their business "C their partnership made the initiative even more successful.

Last year, Ameris Bank donated over 70,500 non-perishable food items to local food banks across our 4-state footprint. This was a result of Ameris Bank collecting over 35,000 items and Ameris Bancorp matching the collected number.

Did You Know?

One of the most disturbing and extraordinary aspects of life in this very wealthy country is the persistence of hunger. The persistence of hunger is not just something that is far away, on a national level; the persistence of hunger also hits close to home.

• More than 49 Million Americans were food insecure, hungry, or at risk of hunger.
• 14.4% of all adults (32 million) and 22.5% of all children (16.7 million) are living in food insecure households.
• 4.8 Million households access emergency food from a food pantry one or more times within a year because of the inability to afford enough food.
• Very low food security had been getting worse ¨C even before the recession. The number of people in 2008 is more than double the number in 2000.
• Georgia holds the 4th highest percentage (14.2%) of people living with a low or very low food security; Alabama is ranked 12th (13.3%), South Carolina is ranked 15th (13.1%) and Florida is ranked 20th (12.2%).