NETSCOUT Awards Fifth Grant to Merrimack Valley Food Bank in Partnership with Greater Lowell Community Foundation

LOWELL, Mass. – The Greater Lowell Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization comprised of over 350 funds, currently totaling over $37MM, dedicated to improving the quality of life in 20 neighboring cities and towns, today announced that NETSCOUT, a leading provider of service assurance, security, and business analytics, has awarded its Heart of Giving community program’s fifth grant through the Greater Lowell Community Foundation Center for Business Philanthropy. The annual grant program builds relationships with nonprofit organizations and engages employees in learning about service opportunities in the communities of Greater Lowell, Massachusetts. This grant was awarded to Merrimack Valley Food Bank to support their mobile food pantry that serves elderly and disabled clients in the area.

“We are proud to be in the 5^th year of the NETSCOUT Heart of Giving Community Grant at the Greater Lowell Community Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to connect philanthropic businesses and individuals to the needs of their communities,” said Jay Linnehan, president and CEO, Greater Lowell Community Foundation. “Giving back to the community in which it operates amplifies a company’s greater purpose and NETSCOUT demonstrates a tangible commitment to supporting important local causes.”

“With corporate philanthropy at the heart of the culture at NETSCOUT, we strive to grow our local community presence, leverage our technology resources and encourage our talented employees to actively serve our communities through our Heart of Giving program,” said Michael Szabados, chief operating officer at NETSCOUT. “Our employees selected Merrimack Valley Food Bank as this year’s grant recipient to support their mobile food pantry that provides home delivery of nutritious foods for low income, homebound elderly and disabled individuals. We look forward to participating in various service opportunities over the coming year.”

Merrimack Valley Food Bank executive director Amy Pessia said, “With the generous NETSCOUT Heart of Giving Grant, the Merrimack Valley Food Bank Mobile Pantry will be able to provide 12,960 meals to homebound seniors in greater Lowell.  Only through collaborative efforts can we improve the health and well-being of our vulnerable neighbors.  We are honored to partner with the team at NETSCOUT.”

The Grant Process
From reading a grant proposal to learning about the organizations in the community and filtering through the worthy applications in order to select the finalists, and participating in onsite work sessions with the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, employees have the opportunity to learn how nonprofits are addressing important issues in the community. From 10 grant submissions, three finalists were selected and invited to NETSCOUT corporate headquarters to share how their organizations would best serve the community, how they would use the grant funds, and their ideas for employee community service projects. The presentations were recorded for employees in NETSCOUT’s local office in Westford. The grant was awarded by NETSCOUT employees to Merrimack Valley Food Bank, to support their mobile pantry that serves elderly and disabled clients in the area and partnering with NETSCOUT employees on other service projects.

The NETSCOUT Heart of Giving corporate philanthropy program includes disaster relief, community service projects, nonprofit board service, employee matching gifts and corporate charitable contributions.

About Merrimack Valley Food Bank
The Merrimack Valley Food Bank Mobile Pantry in Lowell, Mass. is a community-based health and nutrition service program that offers home delivery of nutritious foods specifically tailored to meet the health and dietary requirements of low income, homebound elderly and disabled individuals. The program is not a shopping service but rather helps to reduce the recipient’s monthly grocery expenses. The program focuses on creating a better quality of life for each client by reinforcing healthy eating habits and encouraging clients to remain socially active, despite their disability. Proper nutrition is essential to good health and successful aging that enhances the quality of life for older adults.

About NETSCOUT
NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC. (NASDAQ: NTCT) assures digital business services against disruptions in availability, performance, and security. Our market and technology leadership stems from combining our patented smart data technology with smart analytics. We provide real-time, pervasive visibility, and insights customers need to accelerate and secure their digital transformation. Our approach transforms the way organizations plan, deliver, integrate, test, and deploy services and applications. Our nGenius service assurance solutions provide real-time, contextual analysis of service, network, and application performance. Arbor security solutions help protect against DDoS attacks that threaten availability and advanced threats that infiltrate networks to steal critical business assets. To learn more about improving service, network, and application performance in physical or virtual data centers, or in the cloud, and how NETSCOUT’s performance and security solutions, powered by service intelligence can help you move forward with confidence, visit http://www.netscout.com or follow @NETSCOUT and @ArborNetworks on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

About Greater Lowell Community Foundation
The Greater Lowell Community Foundation is a philanthropic organization comprised of over 350 funds, currently totaling over $37MM, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life in 20 neighboring cities and towns. The Community Foundation annually awards grants and scholarships to hundreds of worthy nonprofits and students, and is powered by the winning combination of donor-directed giving, personal attention from its staff, and an in-depth understanding of local needs. The generosity of our donors has enabled the Community Foundation to award over $15 million to the Greater Lowell Community since 1999. For more information on the Greater Lowell Community Foundation please visit www.glcfoundation.org.

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