Bond Auto Donates $1,000 to Friendship CenterBy Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires Staff
09:26AM / Thursday, April 07, 2016 | |
 Volunteers pack grocery bags for patrons at the food pantry. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — People love discounts and, in North County, they seem to especially like them when they benefit a local charity.
Bond Auto Parts customers snapped up coupons just before Christmas that would ensure donations to local food banks. And out of the 45 or so stores in the chain, the North Adams location was one of four that exceeded $1,000 in donations.
Shawn Collins, store manager of the location on Curran Highway, delivered the $1,000 gift to the Friendship Center Food Pantry on Wednesday.
The "Good Neighbor Discount" program allows customers to buy food shelf coupons from the end of November through the end of the year at Bond Auto stores and get double the amount off as a discount.
Collins said the Friendship Center was advertised as the designated recipient at the North Adams store.
Last year, the store donated $700 but really kicked it up this past fall, he said. "We had customers who bought a couple hundred dollars worth."
The pantry takes in about 27,000 to 28,000 pounds of fresh and nonperishable food every month. Most of that is free through donations and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, but it still has to supplement with purchases.
Food pantry coordinator Richard Davis figured the Bond donation would cover a couple weeks of supplemental food.
"This donation is representative of the community," he said. "This area is extremely supportive of the food pantry."
The Friendship Center opened in early 2011; it now feeds about 350 families and households a month. Last year, it distributed nearly 300,000 pounds of food to more than 3,000 individuals.
Bond Auto Parts, a family-owned business based in Barre, Vt., has raised tens of thousands a year for local food banks as well as being the largest supporter of Make-A-Wish in Vermont.
Collins said a separate program has also allowed the North Adams store to contribute $300 to the Adams food pantry. The store opened in late summer 2014; there are now five locations in Massachusetts.
"We've got a great group of customers," he said. "We try to become part of the community."
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