Maragas Winery Partners with NeighborImpact to Raise Funds for Central Oregon’s Food Bank

For over a decade, Maragas Winery has been raising food and money for NeighborImpact during their holiday season events. This year, Doug Maragas, winemaker, has expressed increased concern over the lack of food for many people in Central Oregon. He stated “just after Thanksgiving, I spoke with Scott Cooper, director at Neighbor Impact. He gave startling numbers – this November, NeighborImpact provided 62,000 meals to those in need. That’s over a four-fold increase from last year.”

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"This November, NeighborImpact provided 62,000 meals to those in need. That’s over a four-fold increase from last year.” — DOUG MARAGAS, Maragas Winery

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To help raise food and money for the NeighborImpact food bank, Maragas, this Christmas Eve from 11:30am to 3pm, will be having an Open House where donations will be accepted for the program. Maragas also disclosed that “it’s been a trend that over the year’s we’ve had less patron participation in the fund raiser and except for Scott at Neighbor Impact, we’ve not disclosed we’ve been supplementing with winery funds the amounts coming in from patrons.”

This year, Maragas stated that he felt it was a good idea to let people know about this trend and that their “winery will match the donations from patrons to encourage people to give.” Maragas also stated that this year will be the first year they will not be collecting food, explaining “we will only be collecting money for the program because often people will bring things that will lack sustenance or not be useful to the homeless and working poor. This way, our efforts will have more of an impact and there are parts of the program that require funding to get the food to the people.”

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