The Employee Assistance Program at Community Medical Centers received a significant boost with the announcement Thursday of a $500,000 matching gift and $50,000 grant.

An anonymous donor made the $500,000 matching gift for the fund, created to help with unforeseen expenses for staff that may become ill and to offset childcare costs. The matching gift will now double any gift to Community Medical Centers “to keep our frontline healthcare givers workers,” according to a news release.

The Employee Assistance Program also received a $50,000 grant from the Bank of America (BofA) Charitable Foundation (Fresno/Visalia market).

“The nation’s health and recovery depend on the courageous frontline healthcare personnel, such as the staff at Community Medical Centers, who work around the clock saving lives,” said Mark Riley, BofA Fresno market president. “Given the bank’s longtime partnership with Community, we immediately recognized just how important helping the hospital staff would be to the greater community. This is one way we’ve worked together during these unprecedented times.”

The grant will provide Community employees more than 2,000 hours of daycare support. The money was put to use immediately as requests for financial help from employees are ongoing.

So far, the programs have helped more than 1,400 employees and covered more than 13,000 hours of staff time since mid-April.

“We are extremely grateful to Bank of America. This grant shows our hospital staff just how much our local community is behind them in this fight,” said Katie Zenovich, senior vice president of development and external affairs and chief fund development officer at Community. “It also helps replenish programs that rely on donations in order to help our team members who need it most.”

For more information about Community’s Covid-19 Response Fund and Employee Assistance Programs or to donate, visit https://www.communitymedical.org/Make-a-Donation/COVID-19-(coronavirus)-Response-Fund