brokers off-the-clock
Mortgage broker Carey Benvenuti has nailed the recipe for giving back to her community BY LISA GORDON
COMMUNITY
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ix years ago, Carey Benvenuti was building the interiors of high-end hotels and restaurants in New York and Washington, D.C. Today, she’s constructing mortgage deals that put people in homes. And, when she’s not working as a team lead with Mortgage Architects in St. Catharines, Ont., Benvenuti is busy feeding hungry people in her community. It all started in 2017 when she began volunteering on The Salvation Army mobile outreach trucks, which deliver hot meals to communities in need six days a week. She quickly realized there were gaps in what they could provide, and she set out to help. “I found a certified kitchen, got a few girlfriends together, and got everybody to bring a pile of ingredients,” said Benvenuti. “Back then, we weighed the trays, and that first night we made about 450 pounds of food, which we donated to The Salvation Army. “What I realized was that you get so much back when you give. We just felt like a million dollars afterward. That’s how ‘No One Goes Hungry’ was born. It’s my own grass roots initiative. I just gave it a name so we could create a Facebook page, and it’s just grown from there.” Today, having prepared almost 200,000 meals, Benvenuti’s initiative is very well known in the Niagara community. With anywhere from 25 to 30 people joining her, the group cooks as much food as possible from an industrial kitchen generously donated by the Stamford Centre Volunteer Fire Association.
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