Washington Trust Collects More Than 13 Tons of Peanut Butter For the RI Community...

Washington Trust Collects More Than 13 Tons of Peanut Butter For the RI Community Food Bank

WESTERLY, R.I.--(Business Wire)--
The Washington Trust Company's eighth annual "PB Xpress" peanut
butter drive brought in a record 26,044 pounds, or 13 tons, of peanut
butter to help those served by the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
This year's drive topped last year's record of 12 tons. Since the
program began in 2001, the Bank has collected a total of 57 tons of
peanut butter.

Washington Trust, and media partner LiteRock 105, received
participation from more than 180 businesses, schools and organizations
which helped collect peanut butter throughout the month of March. Many
of the businesses and school held internal competitions between
departments or classrooms, and awarded prizes to the winners. Radio
station LiteRock 105's Tanya Cruise promoted the drive on-air during
March and appeared at Washington Trust's Cranston branch on Saturday,
April 5, for a "PB Xpress" drop off day. Four and a half tons of
peanut butter was collected during the three hour event.

"Washington Trust is grateful to its fellow community businesses,
organizations and schools for helping us collect 13 tons of peanut
butter to help fight hunger in Rhode Island," said John C. Warren,
chairman and CEO of Washington Trust. "The Rhode Island Community Food
Bank is a valuable resource and we are happy to support their mission
to provide quality food to those in need."

"The community's response to this year's Washington Trust PB
Xpress was absolutely incredible," commented Andrew Schiff, Executive
Director of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. "As we approach the
summer months, a time of year when we experience increased need as
children are out of school, this protein-rich peanut butter could not
have come at a better time. The Food Bank is incredibly thankful to
Washington Trust, LiteRock 105 and everyone who donated to help meet
the goal," finished Schiff.

The Washington Trust Company is a subsidiary of Washington Trust
Bancorp, Inc., a $2.5 billion corporation headquartered in Westerly,
Rhode Island. Founded in 1800, Washington Trust is the largest
independent bank and the oldest community bank in the nation,
headquartered in Rhode Island. A state-chartered bank, Washington
Trust offers a full range of financial services, including business
banking, personal banking, and wealth management and trust services,
through its offices located in Rhode Island, southeastern Connecticut
and Massachusetts. The Corporation's common stock trades on The NASDAQ
Stock Market under the symbol WASH. Web site address:
www.washtrust.com.

The Rhode Island Community Food Bank is a non-profit organization
located in Providence, R.I. The Food Bank solicits stores and
distributes food products donated by supermarkets, wholesalers, food
processors, local farmers and community food drives. The food is then
distributed to the Food Bank's network of over 300 member agency
programs. In the past fiscal year, the Food Bank distributed 8.4
million pounds of food. For more information about the Food Bank,
please visit www.rifoodbank.org.

The Washington Trust Company
Charlene P. Davenport, 401-348-1363
Public Relations Officer
E-mail: cpdavenport@washtrust.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008