Click to hear from Jonathan Henke, Sasha Purpura, Marc McGovern, and other Food Rescue fans at our Didriks benefit kickoff!
Wine glasses clink. Mushroom tartlets are snapped up and savored. Beautiful housewares are on display, and warm conversation fills the room.
It’s a Thursday night in Cambridge, and Food For Free fans have gathered in the Didriks showroom to kick off the 8th Annual February Benefit held by Didriks and Local Root, a fundraiser in which 5% February sales from both stores go to Food For Free.
Store owner Jonathan Henke started by thinking about the one-night benefit events many businesses offer for the nonprofits they love. But by holding a month-long benefit, he was hoping to find a way to make a bigger impact.
It’s worked! So far, through these February benefit events, Didriks and Local Root have contributed nearly $35,000 in donations to our Food Rescue work—but the impact is not merely financial. The stores’ teams are also aiming to turn Didriks & Local Root fans into Food For Free fans.
Didriks store manager Meghan Day explains:
“It’s such a no brainer…there’s not a single customer that isn’t going to be happy that they’re contributing to [Food For Free’s work.] Especially customers who are local, but who haven’t heard of Food For Free yet.”
Megan hopes that new fans will become more involved in Food For Free’s work:
“You don’t have to only provide this 5%—this 5% is great, but you can look [Food For Free] up, here’s their card, you can go find them. I’m always so pleased when we’ve created a new fan for you guys right there at that point of sale.”
Cambridge Vice Mayor Marc McGovern attended this year’s kickoff party, saying,
“We should be having these events all the time. Whatever we can do to help raise money and raise awareness.
“When people think of Cambridge, they think of our financial stability, and how expensive it is to live here, and how much money you need to live here, and what they don’t realize is that there are a lot of people here that are poor, and are struggling. They can’t meet their daily needs. And organizations like Food For Free are important players in filling that gap and really sustaining people.”
When businesses find creative ways to make their communities better places to live, for everyone, it’s a powerful thing. Go ahead and pour the wine—we’ll toast to that!
Participate in this benefit: open until February 29th!
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