Cortland Leadership Program Seeks Food Donations at the Chamber Business Showcase

Mike Eves: [00:00:00] Mike Eves is right here on X 1 0 1, always classic joining in the studio. Jennifer Reminick, and she’s with the, Cortland Area Chamber of Commerce. She’s the manager of marketing and communication. Jen, how are you? I know things are gearing up to be busy this time of the year with the business showcase, but I, wanna walk you into the studio here.

Jennifer Reminick: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Mike Eves: Yeah. Guys have been really busy. Kind of a twofold thing. As I said, we’ve got the Chamber show showcase coming up and, really wanna talk about leadership Corland. You guys always do a project.

But yeah, let’s kind of talk about what Leadership Corland is and then we can kind of talk about your great project that you put together. We’re excited, it’s gonna help, many people in our community.

Jennifer Reminick: Absolutely. I’m so thrilled to talk about it. I’ve been telling people nonstop.

Mike Eves: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Reminick: Leadership Cortland is this amazing program.

It’s something that exists in many different communities. For example, there’s a Tompkins Lead, leadership Tompkins. It used to be a TC three program. It stopped during COVID and the Chamber brought it back last year. [00:01:00] We’re so thrilled to continue that good work. Basically we, it’s an annual program.

It takes, about a year. Split the, participants into groups and they do, they each do a community project.

Mike Eves: Okay.

Jennifer Reminick: So yeah, so that leads me to the food drive, which is my community project with my group. We are having it at the showcase.

Mike Eves: Awesome. Very good. It doesn’t get any better than that, of course.

Let’s get into what exactly you’re gonna be looking for and what, what is your, was your idea?

Jennifer Reminick: Yes. So, I believe it was back in November we were, starting to plan this out and we had some sort of different ideas, but, when the SNAP funding was cut

It really put things into perspective for us and we realized that this was kind of our calling to do a food drive.

So our, our group, we reached out [00:02:00] to local nonprofits.

The Seven Valley Food Rescue has been a huge, supporting partner for us. The food will be going to them and any funds raised will be going to them as well. And not everybody, not that many people seem to know that. They can stretch a dollar so much further with their, their resources and

the pricing that they get for food. So, even if you don’t have time to grab canned goods, it’s. It’s great to donate financially as well.

Mike Eves: Jen, you make a good point that that’s right. Donating financially is just as good sometimes. ‘Cause they kind of know what they need as well and then they can, as you said, their dollar goes very, very far in the seven Valley.

Food rescue. They’ve been doing a great job, you know, not let, letting any leftovers or anything and things too. But it’s, so we’re gonna have some opportunities to, to donate monetarily or if you’ve got a, a non-perishable canned item. You said it’s gonna be at the, at the [00:03:00] chamber. You want to give some more?

Details on that?

Jennifer Reminick: Absolutely. So, you’ll have two opportunities to donate, at the preview party Friday, March 20th. The event goes from five 30 to eight. And we will have a table out front accepting donations, promoting the drive.

Mike Eves: Okay.

Jennifer Reminick: And then again, the big event on Saturday, which the whole community is welcome and encouraged to come.

We usually have a. At least a thousand, sometimes 2000, community members walking through there.

And we hope people will hear about the food drive so they can bring stuff that day. And we can actually fill the trailer if we, if we can make it.

Mike Eves: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s awesome. And you’ve teamed up not only with the Seven Values Food Rescue, but who are some of the other agencies, nonprofits, you’ve, you’ve teamed up with Jen.

Jennifer Reminick: Yeah. So, Catholic Charities. We’re partnering with one of, Kim Vandy. One of my group members is in Catholic Charities.

We also have received support from the Mental Health [00:04:00] Association of Cortland County. It’s a small but mighty group, and they’ve been incredibly supportive.

And as far as sponsors go, we, are sponsored by Burn Dairy AmeriCU. And CNY Farm Supply, who’s actually providing the trailer for us.

Mike Eves: Oh, awesome. Jen. We’re almost outta time, but anything else you wanna say, before we, before we wrap things up, but, two great events rolled into one and such a great idea for you, you guys in your group with leadership Cortland.

Jennifer Reminick: I would like to shout out Julie Mattius, who is the Leadership Cortland coordinator, and, we’re so grateful to have leadership Cortland back again.

I would like to shout out to, my partners, in my group. Kim Vandy, Nicole from Burn Dairy. Hannah from AmeriCU, and Rudy from Intertech.

Awesome. And one last thing. Can openers, that has been eye-opening for us, the need for can openers for food drives. [00:05:00] So that’s, that’s all I have for today.

Mike Eves: Awesome. Of course, Jen, if we want to get more information, we can always email you too, right? What’s a good contact here for you?

Jennifer Reminick: You can, email me at jennifer@cortlandareachamber.com. You can also call the chamber at (607) 756-2814.

Mike Eves: Awesome. Excellent. Well, Jen, I want to thank you for joining me here.

Jennifer Reminick: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

Mike Eves: Of course. On X 1 0 1, always classic. I’m Mike Eves.