The local Calaveras Motorcycle Club helped collect food for the Arlington Community Food Bank.
Members and volunteers created a drive-thru donation site on Olympic Avenue on Nov. 14 to collect food for the holiday season.
“We’re just trying to collect food and money donations for the Arlington food bank,” said Red Garett, Calaveras member and one of the organizers of the drive.
He said the event was held because the club knows food banks need support for the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons and the club also wanted to support the food bank because of the pandemic.
“It’s not exactly COVID related, but we know right now people are going through a lot of hard times,” said Garett.
This is the second time the club has helped the food bank, and the first time was this year as well.
“We helped them out a little earlier when COVID hit,” said Garett.
At that time the club raised about a ton of food and $1,800 in cash.
“We knew they were having issues because there wasn’t a lot of food floating around,” said Garett. “We love Arlington and everything the food bank does here is fantastic.”
Garett hopes the club can collect a similar amount in this drive as what they collected earlier.
“It’s going very well. Last time when we did it the weather was a lot warmer,” he said.
In addition to donating food, many people have dropped off cash donations, he said.
“The cash is coming in well and that’s good because the food bank knows what they need,” said Garett.
The club wanted to provide something to the community and chose the Arlington Community Food Bank because they help people who are from Arlington.
“The Arlington food bank has always been a great thing in this community because it all stays local and that’s what we’re trying to do, help local families,” said Garett.
He said he knows the need is high right now because of the significant amount of economic problems caused by the pandemic.
“No one wants to go hungry right now. We’re all going through hardships. During this time there’s usually families in need, but with COVID everything is twice as bad,” said Garett.
“There’s so many layoffs and small businesses shut down,” he said.
Garett said he appreciated all the people who stopped by for the food drive.
“Thanks so much for everyone that came out,” he said. “Even just a dollar or change, that all adds up and helps families.”
Make sure you have subscribed to our Facebook page or Twitter to stay tuned!
Source: The North County Outlook by Christopher Andersson