Liberty Mutual & Safeco Insurance through their agent partner, Finger Lakes Partners Insurance, will be making a $5,000 donation to the Boys and Girls Club of Geneva.
The donation comes at a time where the Boys & Girls Club’s service to the Geneva community has never been more important.
Finger Lakes Partners Insurance Owner/Partner Ed Boudreau discussed Finger Lakes Partners’ gratitude in being able to assist the Boys & Girls Club in fulfilling their mission. “The Boys & Girls Club is providing more than 150 meals a night. It was an opportunity for our agency to assist in the work they are doing. They are giving back to our community in a big way. Safeco / Liberty Mutual is a strong business partner of our agency. We are so grateful they accepted our nomination of the Boys & Girls Club.”
During the last five years, the Boys & Girls Club of Geneva has become a major source of food for Geneva’s disadvantaged residents. From daily lunches, dinners and snacks during the after-school and summer programs, to special weekend fruit and snack packages, the club has pursued a strategy in which its character, academic and physical development programs rest on a foundation of proper nutrition. The club has also planted ten community gardens, creating farm stands at each of its two locations for deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to augment family menus with healthy, locally grown produce.
The corona virus crisis, however, challenged the club to continue this important service. Within hours of schools being declared closed, the club formed a Food Team and a complimentary Calling Center to contact all families daily and to arrange for preparation and delivery of food to all families. Within the first week, daily meal counts had grown from 150 to more than 220 and the club had also become a hub for distribution of hygiene and antiseptic cleaning materials to help improve home conditions for our members and their families.
Ten days in, the club had created two nightly food lines – one delivering hot, wrapped dinners to a waiting car line; the other packaging and delivering meals directly to homes where transportation was not available. Further, many local families not previously associated with the club asked for assistance and the club broadened its mission to serve any family in need of nutrition and hygiene assistance. The club also began assisting daily the delivery of cold, non-perishable breakfast and lunch food in partnership with the City School District.
The food costs for this new, crisis food delivery system has doubled. The club is using some of its small cash reserves to fund these early days, however, we estimate food costs alone will create a $10,000 deficit in our food budget within three months. Other increases in personnel, gasoline and packaging costs will add to that deficit.
Learn more about the Boys & Girls Club of Geneva at BGCGeneva.org. Visit Finger Lakes Partners Insurance online at FingerLakesInsurance.com.
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