Representatives of the city, Shell and Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen all gather for a ribbon cutting ceremony to kick off a fundraiser at gas pump three and four.
Photo credit: Raj Sanghvi
CHICOPEE — Raj and Kami Sanghvi, owners of the Shell gas station at 197 Grove St., announced a fundraising campaign for Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen & Pantry, Inc. during Hunger Action Month.
September is Hunger Action Month, a nationwide effort to raise awareness about Hunger in America and inspire action.
From Sept. 2 to Oct. 31, every gallon pumped at pumps three and four go back to Lorraine’s in the form of donations. There will be special signs marking these giving pumps.
To kick off the event, Raj and Kami Sanghvi hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 30, to celebrate this partnership and show our support for those in need in Chicopee.
Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen and Pantry is a nonprofit that provides pantry food and hot meals to residents.
Lorraine’s Executive Director Kim Caisse and Board of Directors President Donna Marratta discussed the generosity of this fundraiser idea.
Caisse said all donations will go into a general donation fund and will be used wherever it is needed.
She explained, “It might be for supplies for dinner, food for the pantry, things like that. All donations that come in, any monetary donation, goes right back out into the community in the way of our food program, our dinner program.”
The original idea came from Raj and Kami Sanghvi as a great way for a local business to help another local business.
Raj Sanghvi said each year the Shell company would select their own charity to fundraise for from September and October, but Sanghvi recommended choosing their own local charity.
Once Sanghvi got the OK, he picked Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen based on the work it does for Chicopee.
“We have good relations with everyone there. We like going there sometimes and volunteering. We are in a food desert so not a lot of kids have access to good nutrition so whatever small thing, it’s not a big charity but whatever small thing people can do for any business or local foundation helps them to provide better food,” Sanghvi added.
Marratta talked about how excited and happy she was for Lorraine’s to be chosen for the local fundraiser.
Marratta said, “It’s a local business, because they are independently owned and they’re helping out the local food pantry. It’s keeping the money which will then be food in a sense, local, so that way they can help our own community because they’re located in Chicopee and that’s were our food pantry and kitchen is.”
Caisse was also very happy about the donation partnership.
She said, “It’s great. They actually came to us and brought it to us and asked us if we would be interested and obviously we said yes. That’s amazing for them to reach out to us because usually it’s just like a Shell fundraiser that they donate to different organizations not like local, like more of global so for [Raj and Kami] to reach out to us, being a small organization, it’s great. We’re thrilled.”
Even though this fundraiser has just begun, Raj Shanghvi added he already plans to do it again next year with Lorraine’s.
“We want to be active in our community and be able to give back. We’ve been here since 2009 and Chicopee has given us good enough things so why can’t we give back to a small charity or business,” Shanghvi said.
