Sponsorships and tickets now available for March 2 event.


specialevent_sb_mainimage2010January 4, 2010 (FORT MYERS, FL) – Last December, Lee County’s unemployment rate exceeded 10%. One year later, that rate has risen to 13.9%.

“I believe it could get worse before it gets better,” said Sam Galloway, Jr. “More of our friends and neighbors have lost or know of someone who lost their job and some have been out of work so long, there’s no money left in their savings. They literally don’t know where their next meal will come from.”

Galloway wants to ensure that programs remain in place to help Southwest Florida’s growing population of hungry be able to find a nutritious meal. Seven years ago, he gathered friends in the local restaurant community and beyond to donate their time and services towards a community fundraiser for local homeless and hungry. The event has grown to over 600 guests who come together for one evening each year in the Service Department of Galloway’s Ford dealership located off of Boy Scout Drive in order to raise as much money as possible for area residents in need.

Last year, Galloway’s Soup Kitchen Benefit sold out and raised a record $500,000 for Community Cooperative Ministries, Inc. (CCMI), the umbrella agency for the Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, Senior Transportation, the Montessori Preschool of Dunbar and Family and Homeless Services.

This year’s event will be held on Tuesday, March 2 at the dealership. Cocktails will be served at 6:00pm followed by dinner at 7:30. Maestro Andrew Kurtz will be conducting the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra with a patriotic music selection.

Founder of Norman Love Confections and Chocolatier Norman Love says he is honored to have the opportunity to play a small role in this event that helps so many in our community.

“My wife Mary and I have a great deal of respect for Sam Galloway, Jr. and his successful efforts in raising money for the soup kitchen,” Love said. “We are very proud to assist him in his attempts to make a difference.”

In addition to Love’s award-winning handcrafted white, milk and dark chocolates, he will be serving mini fresh shortcakes with vanilla infused red fruits and whipped cream to complete the event’s food servings. Other menu items include pork bar-b-que, swamp cabbage, bar-b-que chicken, coleslaw, fried shrimp and grits, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gumbo, collard greens and other southern style vegetables and side dishes.

“I said it last year and, unfortunately, we’re still seeing dramatic increases across every service we provide from noontime meals to home deliveries and social service referrals,” said Sarah Owen, CEO of CCMI. “People are continuing to lose their homes and have no food to feed their families. Even the smallest contribution makes a difference.”

The Soup Kitchen serves a noontime meal six days a week to men, women, and children. In addition, CCMI prepares and delivers nutritious packaged meals and beverages for the homebound hungry, offers a food pantry and mobile food pantries that provide emergency groceries to families in need, serves two nutritious meals a day for the children in their Montessori Preschool and oversees a backpack program for local schoolchildren who would otherwise receive little to no food on weekends. CCMI is a United Way agency. CCMI serves Fort Myers and the greater Lee County area, including Bonita Springs, Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres.

According to Owen, a growing number of those in need are the “new hungry” –  individuals and families who have never had to ask for help before. They are former business owners, schoolteachers, volunteers and former donors to the organizations that they are now going to for help.

“The number of Lee County school children who are on free or reduced lunch is over 68%, a frightening indicator of the number of families who are struggling,” she said.

CCMI is refocusing their hunger-fighting efforts towards implementing a sustainable customer choice-centered model for long-term hunger elimination. This reexamination of the traditional soup kitchen setting is aimed at changing both the mind set of those who serve and those being served, as well as the physical spaces and delivery model created for the distribution of food. This concept has been adapted in other parts of the country including Colorado and Ohio with overwhelming success.

“Currently food is not easily available to working poor women, children and others who, research shows, are a larger portion of the hungry than the chronic or urban homeless,” Owen said. “There is a whole middle class portion of our community who are now food insecure but we are either not seeing them because of the stigma attached to the traditional soup kitchen or our services are not available where they can easily access them.”

CCMI’s Everyday Café concept will make food more easily available to everyone in the community who is hungry. The market model will also decrease the stigma associated with standing in line for a hot meal or groceries and reduce significant waste in the pre-selected grocery bag model.

“The goal for the café is that whether you are a CCMI client or a community resident, business owner or volunteer, everyday people will feel welcome to enjoy a healthy, delicious meal.”

Galloway reports that the $500,000 raised last year helped feed thousands of people throughout the year.

Monies raised helped roll out Southwest Florida’s first mobile food pantry last summer that fed over 20,000 individuals. The mobile food pantry (named “Miss Mavis” after local Mavis Miller who donated the first $1,000 toward the mobile pantry) is a beer delivery tractor-trailer donated by the Mitchell Family that has been converted into a rolling distribution center. The 34 foot long trailer has sliding doors on both sides and has been installed with racks to help distribute the canned items more easily. The truck made weekly stops at local schools including Orange River, Tice Elementary, Bonita Springs Elementary, Lehigh Elementary and Hector Cafferata Elementary in Cape Coral over the summer.

“We can and did make a difference,” said Galloway. “When hunger affects our community it impacts every one of us in some way and if every one of us do a small part to impact change, change will happen.”

“We believe with an innovative spirit and the support of over 1,200 active community volunteers, we can re-imagine the food distribution system in our community and wipe out hunger by 2015,” said Owen. “Anyone and everyone in Southwest Florida can be part of the catalyst of change to wipe out hunger. CCMI can not do this alone—it will take a community-wide effort to accomplish this important task.”

“Two dollars can feed a family for a day,” Galloway concluded. “We are all feeling the effects of this economy, but not doing anything for our local neighbors in need is not an option for me.”

Tax-deductible sponsorship opportunities are available from $5,000 and tickets are $150 each. For more information or tickets, call CCMI at 239-332-7687 extension 107