PINEVILLE, La. – May 6, 2020 – Today, Cleco Power LLC announced it has donated $25,000 to Feeding Louisiana to assist in their lifesaving mission to provide food relief through its network of food banks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Feeding Louisiana was created by the five regional food banks within the state to support their collaborative efforts to accomplish statewide policy, advocacy, and food and fundraising objectives.

Cleco Power’s donation will support the food banks in its service territory, including the Food Bank of Central Louisiana, Second Harvest Food Bank and the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana.  Each food bank will receive a portion of the donation.

“We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a reduction in incomes and left many individuals and families in the parishes we serve without jobs, making essential needs, like food, difficult to purchase at this time,” said Shane Hilton, president of Cleco Power.  “We want as many of our customers as possible to have access to the things they need most.”

“With this generous donation from Cleco Power, we can scale up operations at our network of food banks to meet the increased need we are seeing because of the pandemic, including families that have never had to rely on food banks,” said Korey Patty, executive director of Feeding Louisiana.  “Hunger and food insecurity are problems during blue skies which is why our mission is to provide immediate food relief while seeking long-term solutions to hunger.”

Feeding Louisiana is a partner of Feeding America®, the nation's largest organization dedicated to fighting domestic hunger through a network of more than 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs.

Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC is a regional energy holding company that conducts its business operations through its subsidiaries, Cleco Power LLC and Cleco Cajun LLC. Cleco Power is a regulated electric public utility company that owns 10 generating assets with a total nameplate capacity of 3,360 MWs and serves approximately 288,000 customers in Louisiana through its retail business and supplies wholesale power in Louisiana and Mississippi.  Cleco Cajun is an unregulated utility company that owns eight generating assets with a total nameplate capacity of 3,555 MWs, with contracts serving nine Louisiana cooperatives, three wholesale municipal customers and one electric utility.  For more information about Cleco, visit us at www.cleco.com.