Three groups benefit from Androscoggin Bank’s MainStreet Foundation.

LEWISTON – Androscoggin Bank announces the awarding of three grants from its MainStreet Foundation to Central Maine Community College in Auburn, the Holocaust Rights Center of Maine in Augusta and the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program in Brunswick.

As part of its transition from a two-year institution focused on technical courses, the Central Maine Community College is expanding its liberal arts program. Students will be required to take three classes covering humanities, and at least one social studies class.

The new curriculum will require a wider collection of library and reference materials, in particular to areas of study for multicultural and global themes. The foundation awarded a grant of $2,500 toward the goal.

The Holocaust Rights Center received $1,500 to help fund its 12th annual Diversity Leadership Institute last month at Bates College. The institute is a four-day residential workshop for 65 Maine high schoolers to learn how to organize their peers into groups that welcome diversity and resist prejudice, develop their leadership potential and explore ways to decrease bullying and violence in schools. The institute has received national recognition for its program and results.

The hunger prevention program is squeezed for space as it fulfills the nutritional needs of low-income households in Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell. The program serves families from four diverse locations. Its goal is to build a new facility that will consolidate some duplicated functions so it can expand services to better meet its clientele’s needs. Consequently, a capital campaign has begun, and the MainStreet Foundation has made a three year $5,000 commitment.

The foundation was set up in 1997 with a $1 million endowment funded by Androscoggin Bank. Applications for grants are available at any Androscoggin Bank branch.