Nine Rotary clubs across southeastern Connecticut teamed up with Liberty Bank to raise nearly $26,000 to provide food to needy families this Thanksgiving.

The local clubs were part of a broader Thanksgiving Dinner Drive effort by Liberty Bank and the Rotary organization that raised more than $90,200 for the needy in the bank's service area, which encompasses the central, eastern and shoreline portions of the state.

This year's Thanksgiving drive, the bank's sixth, involved a total of 21 Rotary organizations along with 35 Liberty branches.

"Because of the efforts of our Rotary partners, more than 2,100 local families that might not have had a Thanksgiving feast this year will be able to enjoy one," said Sue Murphy, executive director of the Liberty Bank Foundation. "We hope they'll also hear the message that comes with the food: that people care about them and are willing to help."

Liberty Bank officials said more than $67,000 in donations were made to the Rotary clubs in the towns where Liberty Bank has branches during the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Those donations, in turn, were matched with nearly $23,000 in funding from the Liberty Bank Foundation.

The Rotary clubs could purchase and deliver food to the needy or donate the funds to local social-service agencies offering a Thanksgiving food program.

The nine southeastern Connecticut Rotary clubs and the accompanying 10 Liberty Bank offices participating in the food drive raised nearly 30 percent of the total amount for this year's Thanksgiving drive.

Local Rotary clubs that participated were in Colchester; Groton/Ledyard; Mystic; New London; Niantic; Norwich; Old Saybrook; the Stoningtons, and Waterford. The local Liberty branches included Colchester, Groton, Mystic, New London, East Lyme and Niantic, Norwich, Old Saybrook, Waterford and Quaker Hill.