Mario Partee founded the Community Care Food and Clothing Pantry after learning first-hand the needs in his own community many years ago
Mario Partee is no stranger to running an operation. He founded the Community Care Food and Clothing Pantry with his mother Dianne Partee in 2011, helping serve those in need in Winslow Township.
Partee was recently one of 18 Camden County residents honored for their contributions to improving their community at the 2019 Camden County Freedom Medal ceremony on Wednesday, Jan. 23. The award is presented annually since 2001 to civic leaders who demonstrate the ideals and actions that reflect the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
But his beginning starts way back as a 12 year old. Naturally, as he got older, he wanted to do more and more things out and around South Jersey with his friends. However, his parents stopped giving him an allowance at this age, causing what might be a tough situation for many kids nowadays.
Partee decided to take control of the situation.
“They told me that I had to figure out a way that if I wanted to go out with my friends or want a new bike that I’d have to work for it,” Partee said. “Since I love cars and wasn’t a stranger to doing chores, I utilized my parent’s driveway and started cleaning cars.”
He began detailing cars out of the driveway for $5 and eventually moved to a hair salon in Sicklerville. As the business got bigger, he got help from friends in school to clean and help from older friends who had driver’s licenses to pick up cars that needed to be brought to the hair salon, if the owner allowed it.
He and his friends would do door-to-door pickups to make it easier for the owners to not have to leave work or their home to get their car cleaned. He says word-of-mouth helped his business grow, which he now says is the best form of advertising.
Partee continued to reinvest in the small business even as a kid, buying better supplies and vacuums, eventually amassing a customer base of approximately 300 people. Having saved much of the money he made during this time, it ended up being a much bigger operation than he originally expected.
“It really expanded and it actually helped me be able to buy my first home in 2002 in Winslow Township,” Partee said.
After graduating from college, Partee started a food pantry with a Rotary Club and was soon hired to be the corporate relations manager at a local South Jersey food bank in 2008. He says he’s grateful for the CEO at that time taking a chance on him to work in the industry.
Many can’t forget about the recession taking its toll on middle- and low-income families at this time. Having lived in the area his entire life, Partee felt a connection with many of the businesses and the area itself, enabling him to mold the perfect way to help businesses realize why they need to help those in the area.
“A lot of businesses were scared or apprehensive about supporting charities at that time,” Partee said. “My pitch to them was, ‘If you support these people now, they are potential customers later when they get back on their feet,’ and that slogan and approach that I used was able to garnish millions of dollars of support for that food bank.”
Partee developed that slogan while on the job and learning firsthand about the struggles of those in the area during the recession. One of the most memorable moments that helped him realize how important it was for him to help residents across South Jersey came during his first week.
“I really didn’t know anything about hunger issues in South Jersey at first, and one of the first assignments that the CEO at the time told me to do was that the food bank got a call to deliver food to a family,” Partee said.
When first starting with the food bank, his responsibilities were still being ironed out and finalized, so he decided to take initiative and try to get the full experience of the organization. That was, until he recognized the address the food was going to.
“I got the information and looked at the address and I said ‘this must be wrong.’ I thought there wasn’t homelessness, there wasn’t food issues in Winslow Township,” Partee said.
Partee pulled into a large house in a beautiful neighborhood in what looked like typical suburban America. Before walking up to the door, he thought he had been misled and it was a joke.
Once he met the woman at the door, Partee says he learned the woman’s husband had recently left her and took off, leaving her and the kids alone and in need after he drained their bank accounts.
She couldn’t afford milk, eggs or bread for the crying kids in the background who were hungry. He pulled around the side of the house so neighbors wouldn’t see the food bank delivering food.
“That really kicked it off for me,” Partee said. “That changed my whole perspective on hunger in South Jersey. I just dug into it and realized that the face of the hunger didn’t have to be the one we see in the streets.”
After nearly four years with the food bank, Partee launched the Community Care Food and Clothing Pantry in Winslow Township with his mother to better support those in the immediate area.
Partee says he enjoys being able to run his own organization and not having to answer to anyone to be able to help someone. Essentially, the knowledge he’d gained since working with other organizations helped his nonprofit distribute more than 100,000 pounds of food last year alone as they continue to grow.
On top of assisting Winslow Township families in need with food and clothing, the CCFCD also hosts a Thanksgiving dinner, a toy drive, a school supply drive and more.
“I saw a need in my community,” Partee said. “I just wanted to help people, without any problems and without anyone telling me no.”
