Last November, BMO Harris Bank opened its annual Holiday Display, An Up North Holiday, and pledged a donation for every visitor to benefit Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. After several festive weeks of visitors, BMO Harris Bank is happy to announce they reached their goal and will be donating $30,000 towards hunger relief in the greater Wisconsin area. The donation will provide 90,000 meals to help those facing hunger. This donation comes at a crucial time during the post-holiday lull when charitable giving dramatically drops.

“We are thankful to BMO Harris Bank for their continued generosity,” said Charles McLimans, president and CEO of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. “This time of year, many families in our community are forced to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table. Thanks to BMO Harris and all those who visited the Up North Holiday Display, hundreds of families won’t have to make that impossible choice. We thank BMO Harris and every guest who made the effort to visit and enjoy BMO Harris’ Annual family-friendly holiday tradition.”

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the leading hunger relief organization in the state with locations in Milwaukee and the Fox Valley. Together with more than 550 member organizations, they provide 24 million meals annually to nearly 400,000 people across 36 counties in eastern Wisconsin.

“We understand the holidays can be both a magical and a challenging time of year for many,” said Kara Kaiser, managing director at BMO Private Bank. “At BMO, we try to offer some of that magic for families by sharing our annual holiday display, which has always been a fun and free family-friendly event for the Milwaukee community. Through our partnership with Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, we are working together to help alleviate hunger locally in our community. Because of the heavy visitor traffic to our Holiday Display this year, we are thrilled to share we met our donation goal of $30,000. All our visitors can feel good knowing they helped us provide meals to 1,200 local families of four for a week.”

This year marked the 44th anniversary of the popular BMO Harris Bank family holiday attraction. Each year families return to walk through the enchanting display to view nearly 150 decorated Steiff animals in a different holiday theme year after year.