HARPURSVILLE – This weekend, six area bands and local community members have organized a food and cash drive to benefit Afton’s Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse (CHOW) program.
New Berlin’s Police Officer in Charge Dominick Commesso said he and a group of local citizens came together in 2009 to do something about the growing need they began seeing through their emergency service jobs.
“There have been occasions, as a responder, a volunteer firefighter or as a police officer, that you see some things. You go into some homes and you see the parents trying to care for their kids. You look around at what they have, at what they don’t have, and you know that there’s a pretty good chance they just don’t have the means to have a dinner each night. I’m not just talking about the bottom of the barrel here, I’m talking about real people who just can make ends meet even when they’ve got work. Normal people, good people,” said Commesso.
Commesso and a group of volunteers put together a CHOW drive in 2009 working with the Afton Methodist Church’s food pantry, which collects and distributes the donations into their local goodwill network.
Last year’s event brought more than 150 people to donate around $800 and more than 1,000 pounds of food, but this year organizers are asking for a $5 donation instead of canned goods.
“What the food pantries do with five dollars can provide for more people than the typical food donation. They collect together a large amount with other non-profit programs and they basically buy food in bulk. For five dollars, they can get a lot more food than the average person could at a supermarket, plus with money you don’t have to worry about it going bad. It basically allows the churches to buy food without having to worry so much about storage or expiration dates,” said Commesso.
Starting at noon on Saturday at the Central Hotel and Tavern along Oak Hill Road in Harpursville (also known as the Nineveh Junction), six area bands will be playing Southern Country Rock style music. A list of bands performing include: The Ring of Fire Band, The Blue J’s, The Cardboard Cutouts, Chops, The C.O.D. Band, and The Short Change Band
The members of The Short Change Band, Kevin Winters, Mike DeBetta and Darrell Dennison are also organizers of the event.
There are additional fundraising events taking place, including a chicken dinner, 50/50 raffles, and a Chinese Auction. All of the proceeds for the event including the barbecue will be donated to the food pantry. The Central Hotel is offering the location for free and paying for the chicken barbecue, with all the proceeds donated to CHOW.
There will also be a $5 goodwill charge to see the bands perform and the event is scheduled to run until about 5 p.m.
The event will include a Jamboree, where local musicians will be paired up to perform after the bands finish. Attending musicians wishing to participate will have their names drawn from a hat and welcomed up on stage to play with a few other randomly selected players for a interesting mix of fun and sound.
Canned goods and non-perishable items will also be accepted at the Jamboree.
Commesso said he and organizers hope to have the event continue each year.
“We saw there was a need and instead of sitting around and saying, ‘That’s a shame,’ we basically got up and tried to do something about it. We just wanted to make a difference in the life of a struggling family, a hungry child or a fixed income elderly resident. Anyone who’d like to join in that and have a good time doing it will hopefully stop by this weekend,” he said.