Cape Cod Community Club Helps Families In Need

by Jennifer Sexton 

            The Cape Cod Community Club, a buy-local consumer savings program which raises money for Cape-wide charities, has recently partnered with Shaw’s and Star Market to help families in need.

            The club has joined forces with the sister supermarkets, along with more than 100 local businesses, to offer savings to club members every time they shop. Shaw’s and Star Market will now offer $5 off any purchase of $50 or more for club members. In addition, they offer club-exclusive product coupons. Over 100 restaurants, retail store and services offer savings to club members as well. This includes large purchase items such as furniture, bedding, tires, kitchen and bath products, flooring and more.

            Cape Cod Angels is the club’s matching donation program. For every club membership donated to a family in need, the club matches it. With the initial support of Shaw’s and Star Market, the club in now distributing 500 prepaid membership forms to families in need with the help of local charitable organizations. The club has identified more than 5,000 families served by food pantries and local housing authorities.

            Cape Cod Community Club founder Geoff Rose started the club in November of last year as an offshoot of Our Island Club, a similar buy-local consumer savings program which he started on Martha’s Vineyard four years ago. The Island Club has raised over $85,000 for local charities. Reciprocity between the two programs allows members of either club to benefit from their memberships when they travel from the Cape to Martha’s Vineyard and vice versa.

             Rose is enthusiastic about the new partnership with the large supermarket chains.

            “This has made a significant difference in the program,” says Rose. “It has created or given us the opportunity to help families in need because of the contribution on the part of Shaw’s and Star Market to the program. You can see what they offer the club members. When we started to develop how to really make a difference with this program, we felt that by providing free membership through a matching donation program called the Cape Cod Angels, the place to go is really where families needed it— local food pantries and the local housing authorities. The Family Pantry in Harwich, for example, has already started to receive free memberships.”

            Mary Anderson, executive director of Family Pantry, is pleased with the positive impact of the program so far.

            “We just got involved about a month or so ago, and the program is fabulous,” says Anderson. “It only benefits people who are able to spend $50 or more at one time in the grocery store, but these days it’s hard to get out with spending less than that. We have been concentrating on our larger families and our newer families, to help them get a leg up, and they have been thrilled. We were given 50 complimentary memberships and we have given out about 10 so far.”

            Robin Carroll, director of human needs at Lower Cape Outreach Council, also sees a positive effect as the memberships are being distributed.

            “Our involvement just started. Geoff called and said he had 50 memberships to donate for people who are struggling to buy food, and quite frankly, that’s most of us these days,” says Carroll. “I’m appalled, personally, when doing my own grocery shopping, by the cost of food. Pantry requests have gone up more than 30 percent since this time last year, and in some pantries more than that. People call constantly asking for help buying food. We are in the process of signing our clients up for these memberships, and we really appreciate it. Every little bit helps.”

            Annual memberships with the Cape Cod Community Club cost $29. Any individual can donate a membership and become a Cape Cod Angel. Donors may choose which specific food pantries or local housing authorities their donated memberships will benefit, assuring that the program helps in each local community. Memberships may be purchased and donated at www.capecodcommunityclub.com. All participating businesses are listed on the website.    

9/24/09