Corvette Club brings in over 1,500 lbs. for RI Food Bank

Kelcy Dolan
Posted 7/23/15

By KELCY DOLAN

The Corvette Club of Rhode Island isn’t just fancy engines and motor heads. The over 200-member charitable organization has spent all summer hosting a food drive to benefit the …

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Corvette Club brings in over 1,500 lbs. for RI Food Bank

Posted

By KELCY DOLAN

The Corvette Club of Rhode Island isn’t just fancy engines and motor heads. The over 200-member charitable organization has spent all summer hosting a food drive to benefit the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.

Liliana Dolan, a board member and publicity director for the Corvette Club, said that the club donates often and to a lot of agencies throughout the year, but after hearing news of the food drive members “really overdid it. They were creative about it.”

Corvette Club members cleaned out their pantries, left donation boxes at their places of work or held their own mini fundraisers, all to benefit the food bank. The drive kicked off in May with a networking breakfast and was supposed to continue until Aug. 9, when the club will host their annual car show.

In only a few short months the club amassed so much food Dolan’s conference room at Express Employment Professionals’ office on Jefferson Boulevard was “overflowing.”

On Wednesday morning, July 22, representatives from the Rhode Island Community Food Bank came to pick up all the dry goods and bring them to their warehouse in Providence. Several members from the club came to bear witness, and when they saw the donations they began making bets on how much it would all weigh.

Everyone wrote their estimate on a Post-it Note, the numbers ranging from the low thousands to just over 2,000 pounds.

In the end, Denny Langlois’ guess of 1,575 was the closest, and he won a bottle of champagne from the club.

Hugh Minor, director of communications for the Rhode Island Food Bank, explained to club members one pound of food generally equates to one meal.

When Richard Nelson, the founding member of the Corvette Club, found out that the club could potentially be giving 2,000 people a meal he said, “That would be good and then next year we can do more.”

Once the truck left for Niantic Ave. in Cranston, a cavalry of Corvettes followed, dying to see how much the club had raised. All together the donated goods weighed in at 1,727 pounds.

“That’s nearly enough to provide one meal for five people every day for an entire year,” he said.

Corvette Club president Jim Campanini said, “I know some people will be very happy to have this, and that’s what it’s all about. I know it makes my day.”

“I am sure a lot of families will be very happy,” Dolan said.

Minor mentioned that after the holidays, and especially during the summer, the food bank receives fewer donations, but the demand and need remains the same. He said that sometimes during the summer demand can actually increase because children are out of school and therefore not receiving their free or reduced breakfast and lunch they get from the district.

The Corvette Club’s donation will go toward the food bank’s own Summer Food Drive, running from June until August; by the end of the drive the Rhode Island Community Food Bank is hoping to raise 150,000 pounds of food that will be distributed to 169 agencies across the state.

Despite their donation, the Corvette Club aims to raise more through their Annual Corvettes by the Sea event, Sunday, August 9 at Marina Park in South Kingstown. The entrance fee for the show is $15 and a canned good donation.

For more information on the Rhode Island Community Food Bank or to donate to their Summer Food Drive visit www.rifoodbank.org.

For more information on the Corvette Club of Rhode Island or their upcoming car show visit, www.corvetteclubofrhodeisland.com or visit their Facebook page.

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