LYNN — Eighty families who lost jobs during coronavirus, or who took in unemployed relatives, receive donated meat and gift cards today with additional monthly distributions planned.
“It’s all about giving back,” said David Bossman, a Swampscott resident whose Boston food distribution company joined forces with the Boys & Girls Club of Lynn to help the families.
One of Bossman’s B&B Trading Company trucks is scheduled to pull up to the club’s Franklin Street entrance Saturday at 7:30 a.m. where volunteers will unload the bulk meat delivery and repackage it for the families.
The families’ children attend Boys and Girls program when the club is open and each household is slated to receive four whole chickens, four packages of chicken leg quarters, five pounds of fresh ground beef, a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card and a gift card to a local restaurant.
Boys & Girls Director Brian Theirrien said families are scheduled to drop by the club starting at 8:15 a.m. to pick up packages and B&B will drop other bulk meat deliveries to the YMCA, Salvation Army and Lynn Economic Opportunity for future distribution.
Theirrien credited Meninno Construction Company president and Boys & Girls board member Nick Meninno and Bossman and his brother, Robert, with coordinating the meat donation.
“Between Nick and David, they saw the need in Lynn,” he said.
The Bossman brothers started their business 32 years ago and began donating to the nearby Greater Boston Food Bank 10 years ago.
“We wanted to give back and spread it around. We’ve built a beautiful company and we thank our lucky stars,” David Bossman said.
When Meninno mentioned challenges facing Boys & Girls families, the Bossmans quickly identified surplus meat they could donate to the club and other organizations with member families needing help.
“I said, ‘You tell me how many people you want to feed,'” Bossman said.
B&B Trading’s donation will feed 250 Lynn families affiliated with Boys & Girls and the three other organizations.
Theirrien said club families are grateful for the food and for the United Way’s effort to assemble gift cards from local restaurants, including Lazy Dog Sports Bar, April’s Pub and Grill, RF O’Sullivan’s, Market Basket, John’s Roast Beef and pita chips donated by Maria’s Family Restaurant in Haverhill.
“Many families are taking in relatives and caring for them — a household of four is becoming eight — dollars are being stretched,” Theirrien said.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].
