Food drive gives many reasons to be thankful


 

LAKEVILLE, Conn. — The crisp November air was filled with goodwill and warm wishes on Saturday morning, as volunteers worked to get a food drive operation of the first order executed in a precise and timely fashion. That’s just how it’s been going for the past 14 years, thanks to the leadership of "NASCAR" Dave MacMillan, who spearheads Q103 FM’s Sunday in the Country Holiday Food Drive.

"I just like giving back to the community," he said. "Years ago when I first moved out on my own, I couldn’t afford to eat all of my meals because I had to pay my rent, so I skimped on food. I vowed I wouldn’t do that again, or see others do that."

As a result, MacMillan has organized one of the best-run food drives in the area. The food drive provides full turkey dinners to those in need on both Thanksgiving and Christmas through local food pantries.

The fundraisers for the drive start off months ahead of time with a poker run, which garners donations from the community, followed by a chicken cook-off. Then there’s a dinner dance at Silo Ridge Country Club, a Cub Scout spaghetti dinner and a collection drive by Maplebrook students in the CAPS program. There are also private donations and the generosity of many of the merchants who lower costs for the food that is purchased for the drive. Even the refrigerated truck, which was provided by Arnoff Moving and Storage this year, helps keep costs low.

"It’s great," MacMillan said. "This year we collected $35,000 among all of the events."

And there’s another one coming up. There will be a pig raffle in Dover, where a $5 ticket can win a 200-pound pig, which can be delivered frozen or prepared as a pig roast, depending on the choice of the winner.

"I’m guessing that will raise another $3,000," MacMillan said, marveling at how generous the community has always been when it comes to supporting his efforts with the food drive. "People just come on board with us all the time."

So it appeared at Saturday’s disbursement of food, which was taking place at the radio station in Lakeville, Conn. More than 20 people were there to volunteer their time to help divide food and direct it to the proper food bank. Dover resident Bobby Orton was just one of many who helped.

"I just came to help out, to volunteer and do that community thing, because that’s what you do around the holidays," he said.

MacMillan said he couldn’t thank the volunteers who helped out enough for their time and their energy. He also reiterated the great value of the merchants who donated their time and their goods to make the food drive more feasible.

"Arnoff’s gave us a big refrigerated truck, and that was a big deal, because we picked up 550 turkeys on Thursday and I don’t know what we would have done with them otherwise," MacMillan said, explaining that there was no other place to store the birds without the Arnoff truck. In past years the drive has used Paley’s Farm’s walk-in cooler, but that was not available because the farm is doing renovations.

The large Arnoff truck was just the start of it. He added that the food drive gets all of its dry goods from Freshtown, at a savings of more than $3,500. It gets its turkeys from Trotta’s, and the prices haven’t changed for the past five years. Ginsberg’s in Hudson also provides supplies for the drive, at low prices.

"What makes it nice for us is we get prices equal to the big Wal-Marts, but we stay with local businesses, for local families," MacMillan said with evident pride. Knowing that, and knowing all that everyone contributes to make the food drive a reality, he summed up what the whole affair means to him personally. "I just get to know that everybody has a nice Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner."

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