This Saturday, October 5th, Rodeo Realty Westlake agents will kick off the fall season with a great cause. The Manna Food Drive returns to Conejo Valley’s Nabu Wines and you’ll have a chance to give back too!
Thats why we asked Larry Laffer, of our WLV office, who started the food drive, a few questions about this weekends event. This is what he had to say:
1. Who is the food being donated to?
All proceeds will go to Manna, The Conejo Valley Food Bank. https://www.facebook.com/mannaofconejovalley/.
“Realtors from Rodeo Realty Westlake Village are sponsoring a food drive on Saturday, October 5th from 1-4 p.m. to benefit Manna, the Conejo Valley Food Bank in Thousand Oaks. It will be held at Nabu Wines, 2649 Townsgate Rd in Westlake Village. I started doing my own holiday food drives in my Westlake Village farm area and collected a lot of food on my own but I really wanted to see how I could scale it up. I thought that if we could involve more agents along with Rodeo Realty corporate, we could get a lot of people from the area to donate food. I also thought that if we turned it into a fun community event, we could get people to bring the food to us. I tied in a local winery who will offer a free 6-tasting flight for the first 150 people who bring food donations. We’ll have live music too.
I put the word out to my colleagues in WLV. We went from 5 agents in for the first event in April, to double that number so we’re now able to market to about 10,000 homes, all in our immediate area. It’s “hyper local” and I’m excited to have an even greater impact this time around. I’ve recently joined Manna’s executive board and am a big believer in the important work they do in our community. Thanks to Syd, Kristy Fields and of course my fellow participating WLV agents for really stepping up!”
2. What is the goal for the food drive?
“The goal is to collect a lot of food while increasing awareness of Manna’s work to help those in our community who suffer from food insecurity. Manna feeds 20,000 of our neighbors in the Conejo Valley yearly and for 40 years and it’s been run out of a tiny, 700 square foot house. Manna is scaling up big time with the acquisition of 5,000 square foot, former church property in Thousand Oaks which will soon house a brand new, much larger food bank with cold storage, class rooms, a commercial kitchen and much more. The project is in the process of permit approvals from the city with build out expected to begin in 2020. I honestly can’t think of a better local cause than fighting hunger close to home. I think it’s really important for the community to know that Rodeo Realty is giving back to the local community we serve so proudly.”
3. Why did you choose to do this event?
As a realtor, if you’re going to market yourself locally, why not do something good in the community at the same time?