Mark R. Haranas, president and CEO of MutualOne Bank and a MutualOne Charitable Foundation trustee, announced today that the Foundation has awarded $10,000 to the Framingham Police Department to support the continuation of a Knock, Talk and Toss (KTT) program designed to reduce the number of unused prescription and over-the-counter drugs available for circulation in the community.

“This program was so successful last year, there was no question that we would support it again this year,” said Haranas. “The funds will allow the KTT team to continue to educate the community at large about the danger of keeping unused drugs in the home, expand their door-to-door efforts to collect unused drugs, and increase access to drug take-back kiosks.”

Focused initially on the Downtown/South Framingham area, the KTT pilot program last summer reached over 2,000 people via multilingual materials, removed 33 pounds of unused drugs from the community, and involved hours of door-to-door visits by police officers and community representatives. Outreach efforts stressed the dangers of opiates and other harmful drugs, provided the opportunity to dispose of unused drugs, and distributed information about resources readily available in the community. This year’s efforts will include reaching housing department units that have not yet been contacted, revisiting housing department units contacted last year, and begin door-to-door outreach to homes outside the housing department units.