53 Years of Partnering For Significant Impacts

The CRFP began its first Holiday Food Basket Project in 1974 with Reverend. Sherwood Treadwell of the Wesley Methodist Church and co-opting his friend and fellow Kiwanian, Mark E. Manus., into raising financial support from the downtown merchants to enable them to procure the food. Mark quickly became actively involved and arranged for this to quickly become a joint project with the Greater Interfaith Council of Churches, St Vincent de Paul Society and the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce. The 50+ years of support and collaboration with GCCC has grown the organization from serving under 100 families in 1974 to over 2,250 individuals and families in the Greater Concord Area.

The remarkable aspect to the CRFP is that although it is an all volunteer organization, it employs highly developed strategies and operational best practices. This is evidenced by the constant enhancements and improvements of the Holiday Project and Year Round Distribution Projects, as well as its business operations. The unyielding commitment of its board members, key volunteers, agency partners, and various stakeholders has fostered innovation and creative problem solving in addressing its mission.

The success of this partnership between GCCC and CRFP to help solve hunger is why December is declared “Capital Region Food Program Month” in the City of Concord. It reminds us to come together as a community to participate, contribute and support CRFP in its mission to reduce hunger in the Great Concord Area.

Over the last five decades, we have distributed more than 3,900 tons of food valued in excess of $5.9 million dollars. And we are not done yet! Won’t you join us in helping the hunger insecure in our communities?

Thank you to the long-standing partnership of the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, the Concord Young Professionals Network, and the Duprey Companies, in highlighting the work of the Capital Region Food Program (CRFP) at the December Business After Hours event, and helping us reach our fundraising goal!

To learn more about the Capital Region Food Program, please visit our website at capitalregionfoodprogram.org/