$67K in Gift Cards Sales Support Cold Spring Businesses, Food Shelf

COLD SPRING – A Cold Spring area holiday season fundraiser helped sell over $67,000 worth of gift cards to local bars and restaurants – and supported the ROCORI Area Food Shelf in the process.

From mid-December through January 14, gift card sold by eight Cold Spring area bars and restaurants supported a matching donation of up to $5,000 toward the food shelf, which serves families in Cold Spring, Rockville and Richmond year-round.

The fundraising project was spearheaded by the Cold Spring Economic Development Authority and the Cold Spring Area Chamber. Maddy Schwartz, Community and Business Development Specialist for Cold Spring, says they were awarded the initial $5,000 food shelf grant by the Initiative Foundation in early December – but wanted to do something a little different.

“The goal was to give all the grant money to the food shelf,” Schwartz explained. “And, by acting as a dollar-for-dollar donation, we were hoping that this project would encourage community members to buy gift cards and support local businesses.”

All told, the project raised $67,072. Initially, Schwartz says organizers hoped all eight restaurants would be able to sell $5,000 worth of gift cards between them. She says they were “pretty blown away” by the final amount of gift card sales.

“We were hoping to get some of the holiday business,” she explained. “And, we weren’t sure if we were going to hit that $5,000 goal, but obviously that was not an issue at all.”

“The community really came out to support our local businesses, along with the food shelf.”