The Chatham-Kent ATV Club is pleased with the community response after it resumed its annual food drive following a five year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article content
“It’s gone really super right from the word ‘Go,’ at 9 am,” said club president Vince Masse Saturday afternoon as the food drive was winding down at the Real Canadian Superstore in Chatham.
The grocery store teamed up with ATV club to provide food bags with a retail value of about $12, including canned goods, tuna, pasta, and granola bars that customers purchased for $5 to donate to the cause.
Noting Real Canadian Superstore does about four or five food drives year, store manager Derrick Thibeault said, “We love giving back to the community.”
He said the store had previously teamed up with the ATV Club for their food drive in 2019 and decided to do it again when Masse reached out earlier this year to do it again.
Masse said the 500 bags were nearly sold out and what wasn’t, the club was going to buy up.
Article content
Thibeault said the response “has been really good. I would say this has been one of our most successful bag sales yet.”
Masse said the $6,000 value of the 500 food bags from Real Canadian Superstore was combined with about $8,000 in other food and cash donations brought to the store by residents.
He said at one point a 24-foot long flatbed trailer was piled about four-feet high with food donations.
“It’s very overwhelming when you see this,” Masse said of the community’s response.
He is pleased the food drive has been well received because it’s really tough for food banks right now.
“The economy’s rough and food banks are getting overwhelmed beyond they could ever experience,” Masse said.
About a dozen club members brought pickup trucks to deliver the food donations to 10 food banks across Chatham-Kent.
The club’s fundraiser included a GoFundMe campaign under the title Feed the Hunger in Chatham-Kent, which was hoping to raise $10,000.
Masse said just over $2,500 was raised, but he plans to keep the page open for another week if people still want to donate.
He said the food drive will “definitely be back next year.
“Hopefully we’re as successful, because I don’t see things getting any better in the near future,” Masse said.
Share this article in your social network