Fundraising car show to help feed community

Help Feed the Community Car Show will be held from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Saturday at the Country Pickens Flea Market, Highway 53, Poplar Bluff to raise funds to purchase a food truck to provide food for the community.

The entry fee is $15 per vehicle and spaces may be reserved by contacting Chris VanLear at 573-475-4037 or emailing her at CVAN1977@gmail.com.

Trophies will be for first, second and third places, as well as people’s choice awards.

All the proceeds from the event will go to purchase a food truck from SEMO Area Food Bank to feed 200 families in the community,.

Various vendors will be set up. DJ Frogman will provide live music. Hot dogs will be sold.

VanLear is the manager for the local flea market as well as the sponsor for Junior Order of Eagles. When she shared her experience of doing a food drive with the JOE, the store owner Brandon Norman and the vendors at the flea market wanted to become involved to help feed the community.

Norman responded with ‘“let’s get on board. Let’s have all the stores do it.”

Country Pickens Flea Markets are located in Poplar Bluff, Bloomfield, Sikeston, Piedmont and Doniphan and all five stores are on board and are planning events in their location to purchase food trucks from SEMO Area Food Bank, VanLear said,

VanLear said, “We want the community to know, yes, we’re a business, but we absolutely care about our community. We want to do whatever we can to help.”

“Each store in their community is working to raise the money to finance bringing a food truck to help feed their community,” VanLear said.

VanLear said, “Each store has set up an area for people to help donate. I had actually set it up as help us collect 75,000 pennies, because that’s the equivalent of $750 which we will be using to purchase a food truck from the SEMO Area Food Bank to feed 200 families in the community.

“All of the vendors and the customers who come in, have been donating,” she said. “We’ve already met $450 of our goal. We’re very confident the car Saturday will send us over the top to be able to get the $750. We’re so confident I already ordered the food truck from the SEMO Area Food Bank to be here at our store at 9 a.m. Oct. 29 so we can start distributing food at 10 a.m.”

Since the Sikeston location has started collecting funds for a food truck, VanLear said, “Any extra we make over the $750, we’re going to move that over to Sikeston to help give them a boost. Then whatever event they do to raise their money, they’re going to give to the next store. We’re going to keep the domino effect, so that way all five stores can help their community. “