Chatham-Kent ATV Club’s food drive back in gear

The Chatham-Kent ATV Club is resuming its tradition of helping the hungry after halting its annual food drive during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Club president Vince Masse said a Feed the Hunger in Chatham-Kent GoFundMe campaign aims to raise $10,000 to buy food for food banks across the municipality.

The club has been supporting food banks since its first meeting in January 2016 at the Merlin Legion, when more than 70 members and some municipal councilors worked on creating an ATV bylaw to allow the vehicles to travel on local roads, Masse said.

“At that first meeting, I asked everyone to bring some canned goods to help the Tilbury Information Help Center food bank,” he said.

Those donations filled the bed, back seat and most of the front seat of his pickup truck, Masse said.

“It just seemed from that point on we just continued supporting food banks and got bigger and bigger and bigger at it,” he said.

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The club went from filling one trailer the first year of its campaign to filling more than three trailers that last time the food drive was held in 2019, Masse said.

This year’s Feed the Hunger in Chatham-Kent campaign will be taking donations until Nov. 9. Club members will be at the Real Canadian Superstore in Chatham collecting food donations.

Club members will deliver food donations to food banks in Chatham, Wallaceburg, Dresden, Thamesville, Ridgetown, Wheatley and Tilbury, Masse said.

With the high cost of living and growing homelessness, “it’s a global problem right now. It’s horrible,” he said.

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