Car show coming to benefit South Portland Food Cupboard

Adrian Borrelli

A car show fundraiser that benefits the South Portland Food Cupboard will be held at Southern Maine Community College on Aug. 13 from noon to 3 p.m.

This event is the first of its kind for the food cupboard. Adrian Borrelli is the driving force of the event, which is related to his Eagle Scout project.

“My full Eagle Project is redesigning the bag room for the South Portland Food Cupboard,” said Borrelli. “Which will include fixing all drywall, repainting, I’m building new shelves and building three new all aluminum carts. The carts help with unloading the van after we pick up food, and they also aid us in bringing out grocery bags to recipients’ cars after we have fulfilled an order. So these carts will be lightweight, very transportable, and I think they’ll really help us with Wednesday, Thursday and any other day we need them.”

The car fundraiser started after Dwayne Hopkins, executive director of the South Portland Food Cupboard, asked Borrelli about the possibility of a car show. Borrelli went to others in the car community and began conversations about the potential, and secured Southern Maine Community College as the venue.

“At the time, the president of SMCC was our friend, and he gave us permission to use the large parking lot and said it was a great idea,” Borrelli said.

Borrelli’s father, Richard Borrelli, president of the board of the South Portland Food Cupboard, reached out to a number of food trucks and vendors to invite them to the event. Vagabond Coffee and PB&ME will be at the event as a result to sell their food.

Borrelli said that his mother knew people in waste management they connected with to provide four portable toilets at the event.

There will also be trophies made by local business Sider’s Woodcrafting to award the winner of best in class, and spectator awards.

“What this car show is really doing is bringing the community together and putting out our name to everybody in need,” Borrelli said. “And even if people aren’t in need and just want to donate, that is 100 percent why we did what we did.”

All proceeds from admissions and donations will go directly to the food cupboard. The South Portland Food Cupboard is a nonprofit organization providing food to those in need. According to Laurel LaBauve, vice president of the food cupboard, the nonprofit has seen an “unprecedented increase in demand” this year.

Since Jan. 1, the cupboard has seen a 60 percent increase in the number of families visiting distribution days, said LaBauve.

“We are seeing huge increases in the number of recipients each week,” LaBauve said. “We have to buy more and more food – even as the prices for staples are rising.”

“We are here for the community and all this money isn’t going into people’s pockets or anything like that, it’s going to the food cupboard for the benefit of the less fortunate,” said Borrelli. “But even if you’re not poor, you’re just in a tough situation, we’ve all been there. And honestly, the food cupboard is just to help people get back on their feet, and I think we’ve done that and we’ve seen large families, elderly, but with today’s prices on food today, I don’t blame people. Honestly, it’s great that they are coming to us.”