Banks Supporting Young Entrepreneurs

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Consumer Bankers
Association (CBA) Foundation, and Ashoka's Youth Venture are pleased to
announce the "Banking on Youth" grand prize winner and the recipient of
the Audience Choice award.

Grand Prize: $15,000 - Lauren Behgam, The Food Recovery Network, Plano,
TX

The Food Recovery Network recovers surplus food that would otherwise be
thrown away, from campus dining halls and sporting events, and takes
the food to local homeless shelters. In its first year of operation
they have launched chapters at four university campuses and recovered
50,000 meals valued at $250,000. Their goal is to expand the Food
Recovery Network to as many colleges as possible and to help create a
stronger food recovery culture in America.

Audience Choice Award: $5,000 - Jonny Cohen, GreenShields, Highland
Park, IL

GreenShields is an aerodynamic add-on-device for school buses, designed
to reduce drag and increase gas mileage. Jonny began developing the
idea at age 12 and has been refining the device for the past two years
with the help of Northwestern University's Engineering School.
GreenShields will enable schools to save over $600 per bus per year due
to improved gas mileage and will benefit the environment by lowering
emissions.

These top entrants were selected at the annual Youth Venture Summit in
Washington, D.C. on Saturday, July 28, 2012.

Banking on Youth invites young people between the ages of 13 and 20 to
submit a creative 90-second video and brief entry form to share their
idea for an entrepreneurial venture that will directly benefit society.
Over 170 business plan proposals were received this year and are
available at www.bankingonyouth.org. The six national finalists chosen
by the CBA Foundation and Ashoka's Youth Venture were:


  --  Lauren Behgam, The Food Recovery Network, Plano, TX
  --  Jonny Cohen, GreenShields, Highland Park, IL     
  --  Tyne Freeman, When Worlds "Kaleid", Columbia, SC         
  --  Jamelah Issac, The Healthy Neighborhood Store Alliance, Oakland, CA    
  --  Yoni Kalin, Color My World, Washington, DC
  --  Rigo Santoyo, Youth Speak Media Solutions, San Fernando, CA




"CBA is truly honored to recognize these young entrepreneurs for their
outstanding innovation and dedication to helping their communities,"
said Richard Hunt, President and CEO of the Consumer Bankers
Association. "Thank you to our member banks for their sponsorship and
commitment to youth entrepreneurship. Banking on Youth's inaugural year
has been a great success. We look forward to continuing this program as
a means to connect tomorrow's leaders with banks that can provide the
funding and guidance to bring their dreams to life."

"Not only are we thrilled with the successes of the 55 ventures we
seeded through the competition and the phenomenal potential of our
national winners, but we are also delighted with the overwhelming
enthusiasm and support from our 13 participating banks," remarked
Gretchen Zucker, Executive Director of Ashoka's Youth Venture. "We
can't wait to get started with the next Banking on Youth."

In addition to the finalists, 55 regional winners were selected by the
program's sponsors, CBA member banks from across the country: Union
Bank (10 prizes), U.S. Bank (6 prizes), Wells Fargo (6 prizes), Bank of
America (5 prizes), Citigroup, Inc. (5 prizes), IBERIABANK (4 prizes),
M&T Bank (4 prizes), PNC (4 prizes), First Niagara Bank (3 prizes),
BB&T (2 prizes), Citizens Financial (2 prizes), Citizens Republic (2
prizes) and SunTrust Bank (2 prizes). Each regional winner receives
$1,000 of seed-money for their venture ideas that will directly benefit
society. View the full listing of regional winners here.

For further information about the competition visit
www.bankingonyouth.org. For information about how to become a sponsor
contact Liz Terry, Vice President of the CBA Foundation at
lterry@cbanet.org.

About CBAThe Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) is the trade
association for today's leaders in retail banking - banking services
geared toward consumers and small businesses. The nation's largest
financial institutions, as well as many regional banks, are CBA
corporate members, collectively holding two-thirds of the industry's
total assets. CBA's mission is to preserve and promote the retail
banking industry as it strives to fulfill the financial needs of the
American consumer.

For more information, please contact Deirdre Leahy, 202-552-6371,
dleahy@cbanet.org or visit www.cbanet.org.

About Ashoka

Ashoka is the global association of the world's leading social
entrepreneurs and the pioneer of the social entrepreneurship movement.
Ashoka has a 30-year history of finding and launching the top
innovations that address the world's needs. We believe that the
greatest contribution we can make to the world is to increase
dramatically the number of changemakers today and in every future
generation. This is the key factor for success in every part of
society, from a school to a company to an entire country. Ashoka
operates in 65 countries and online at www.ashoka.org.

About Ashoka's Youth Venture

Youth Venture is an international network of 100,000 changemakers. We
inspire and support young people to be changemakers by launching and
leading their own civic-minded organizations and businesses, and we
help communities around the world realize their potential as
communities of changemakers. YV operates in 19 countries and online at
www.GenV.net.

Deirdre Leahy

dleahy@cbanet.org

202.552.6371

The Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) is the trade association for
today's leaders in retail banking - banking services geared toward
consumers and small businesses. The nation's largest financial
institutions, as well as many regional banks, are CBA corporate
members, collectively holding two-thirds of the industry's total
assets. CBA's mission is to preserve and promote the retail banking
industry as it strives to fulfill the financial needs of the American
consumer.

This information was brought to you by Cision
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