CORD Hosts Golf Tournament to Support its Mobile Food Pantry

Food Assistance | May 24, 2018

mobile food pantry edited 2

The Cape Organization for Rights of the Disabled (CORD) will hold its first-ever golf tournament fundraiser on Sunday, June 10, to support its Mobile Food Pantry initiative. The tournament, which is presented by Forte Fitness and sponsored by Nutter, McLennen and Fish, LLP, will take place at Twin Brooks Golf Course, in Hyannis, and CORD is currently looking for individuals and foursomes to take part in this wonderful fundraiser.

“We’re very excited about this event,” said Gretchen Arvanitopoulos, Assistant Director of Services for CORD. “Every hole is now sponsored, and now we’re looking for individuals and teams to come out and join us. It’s going to be a great day.” There will be a shotgun start at 11 a.m., and prizes, games and raffles will be awarded throughout the day. Hyannis Honda has donated a new Honda CR-V for the hole-in-one contest, and cash prizes will be awarded for first place, $1,000, second place, $500, and third place, $300. The cost to take part in this event is $95 for each person, she said, which includes lunch and a golf cart. However, the number of golf carts is limited, so reserve one now!

CORD currently operates one, and will soon have two Mobile Food Pantries – big, yellow buses (donated by the Regional Transit Authority) which are loaded up each delivery day with non-perishable groceries. These buses bring the food to the areas of those who need it. Unlike Meals on Wheels, the Mobile Food Pantry volunteers do not deliver door to door, but wait for people to come to them at whichever location they will be on a scheduled day.

One bus is currently covering the region from Centerville to Provincetown, and the second will serve the Upper Cape region. Each person served can get a minimum of two bags of food from the Mobile Food Pantry. And, although the CORD mission is to assist those with disabilities, no one who is hungry and in need of food will be turned away from the Mobile Food Pantry.

The majority of food for the Mobile Food Pantries comes from the Boston Food Bank, but donations are always needed. Recently, Mass. Maritime Academy donated an incredible 2,200 pieces of nonperishable food items. “It was amazing,” Arvanitopoulos said. “We’d love for other schools to set up competitions to collect nonperishable food donations. I can always help them organize that.”

download 4

Volunteers are desperately needed to meet and ride on the Mobile Food Pantry bus and help distribute food to those in need, she added. Drivers and backup drivers are greatly needed as well.
Utilizing two Mobile Food Pantries will definitely serve the region’s hungry more effectively, but will also incur double the costs of operating just one. The golf tournament, which will hopefully be the first of many, will help defray those costs, and help CORD to better serve the community.

To sign up for CORD’s first annual golf tournament and become a part of a great cause, call 508-775-8300, ext. 24.

To see a schedule of Mobile Food Pantry stops, to get more information, to volunteer or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit CORD at cilcapecod.org or call 508-775-8300.

Source