SUDBURY -- A Sudbury radio station has launched an initiative it calls a double whammy.
Pure Country 91.7 kicked off Feeding Families-Restaurant Relief this week.
"We are helping our local restaurants, which have just been taking an absolute beating this past year," said Coop, morning host at Pure Country 91.7. "It has been so, so difficult for them to stay afloat."
Overtime Sports Bar and Grill has signed up to take part in the program and plans to make roast beef and porketta dinners next week.
"I think it's a good fit for restaurants -- it gives us a little bit of income to move along during this pandemic," said Attilio Langella, owner of Overtime Sports Bar & Grill. "And the food is going to needy people that really need the food."
Coop said they are encouraging employees and businesses to either raise $600 or $1,200 in donations.
"Then what happens with that donation it goes to one of the restaurants that is taking part in this initiative," he said.
The need is real
Those restaurants will make frozen meals that will be distributed by the Sudbury Food Bank. The food bank said the need is real and increasing in the pandemic.
"The meal programs as a whole -- that would be all our agencies -- serve over 10,000 meals a month," said executive director Dan Xilon. "So we are going to be able to put these meals in there where it is most appropriate, which can be the most benefit to the people who are hungry."
The meals will be distributed to youth and women's shelters, elderly people who are shut-ins and others in need.
The Lougheed family kicked off the initiative with a $1,200 donation and so far three restaurants have signed up to take part in the initiative.
