Harvest Market owner Tom Honer has a great lead on the identity of Santa, but he isn”t telling.
Last week, a man walked into Harvest and gave Honer a check for $10,000. The philanthropist asked that the money be used at Harvest Market by the Fort Bragg Food Bank.
He came to Honer because he knew the grocer would keep his identity secret. If it was indeed Santa, he lives on the Mendocino Coast, and there is a Mrs. Claus. Honer did reveal the gift came from a local couple.
“It”s just something he and his wife wanted to do. They want to do this but not be out there in public for doing it,” Honer said.
The Food Bank will give Harvest a list of needed items which the store will provide. Food Bank Executive Director Nancy Severy said the bulk of the food gift will be spread out over the year, to make sure that families get staples all year around.
“Obviously we will cut our margins and make this go a long ways,” Honer said.
Harvest Market already gives food daily to the Food Bank and has a program in which people can buy a turkey for a needy family and another in which kids get milk. Honer said he has never had something like this happen. Tom and Penny Honer opened Harvest in the mid-1980s.
Although the mystery donor didn”t issue any challenge for matching, Honer said the holiday spirit is likely to be infectious.
“The fact that they have done it and you are going to print it may provide inspiration and challenge for others to give,” Honer said, adding, “There will always be hungry people, and the Food Bank does a good job filling that need.”
While Severy was thrilled with the gift, it came at the same time as some bad news.
“The USDA Commodities program has warned us that the quantity of food they will provide in 2007 may be up to 25 percent less than in 2006. This $10,000 gift comes at just the right time to help us maintain the quantity and quality of staple foods for our weekly client food bags,” Severy said. The Food Bank has a continuing need for food and funds for the needy.
How will the Food Bank deal with this gift?
“We”ll use a small part of it to purchase the remaining food for the Christmas holiday bags. However, its greatest benefit to us will be to supplement our budget for securing staple foods for our regular weekly client distribution,” Severy said.
The Food Bank often gets anonymous donations and unusual gifts, like confiscated salmon.
“We”ve received some very significant donations this year from a number of community members. However, the $10,000 gift is certainly the largest!” Severy said.
How to help financially
Beginning in 1995, the Advocate-News and The Mendocino Beacon began sponsoring “Season of Sharing,” an annual community fund-raiser for the Food Bank.
Of the 60 or so very worthy non-profit organizations serving our area, the newspapers” publisher, Sharon Brewer, always puts her full support behind the Food Bank”s efforts, “Because they are addressing the most basic problems facing so many — hunger.”
“We support many community causes, but the Food Bank”s cause is the one we get entirely behind,” says Brewer. “We can”t address other problems, if hunger isn”t addressed first.”
Once again the Community Foundation of Mendocino County is administering the fund-raiser free of charge, enabling all donations to directly benefit the Food Bank.
Checks should be addressed to the Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC), and mailed to Advocate-News, P.O. Box 1188, Fort Bragg, 95437. Donations can also be dropped by the newspaper office, located at 450 N. Franklin St.
The newspapers provide weekly updates on the total dollars raised, with the names of contributing individuals and businesses, unless they wish to remain anonymous. The fund-raiser runs through Jan. 31.
This week”s update
Weekly updates on the total dollars raised appear in each issue, with the names of contributing individuals and businesses (unless they wish to remain anonymous) printed to keep the momentum going.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Season of Sharing had raised $4,389.
Here”s the list of contributors who sent checks last week: N.A.L.C. Union, Loie Rosenkrantz, William and Wilma Follette, Trinity Lutheran Church Hope Circle, Jane Vartanian, Mendocino Coast Gem & Mineral Society, Travel Shores Trailer Park, George and Frances Egling, and one anonymous donor.
