When you head out for lunch tomorrow, you have the chance to join the mob.

Comfort Keepers, which provides in-home care for seniors, is sponsoring a “donation mob” from noon until 2 p.m. at the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce parking lot, located on East Grandview Parkway. Donations of non-perishable food and hygiene products will be accepted and then distributed to the elderly in our area.

“It's like a ‘cash mob’ – but with a twist,” says Comfort Keepers marketing manager Judi Maloney. “It’s supporting local people in need.”

A cash mob is simply when a group of people, usually organized via social media, show up at the same time to buy things at a local store. It’s designed to help drum up business, and has been used recently in Traverse City at Bon Vin and Old Mission Multigrain Bakery and Cafe.

In this case, however, the mob’s purpose is help local senior citizens. All items donated will go to the Grand Traverse Commission on Aging, which will give them to local seniors who might be struggling. The items will be delivered to seniors as part of the agency’s holiday-themed “Baskets of Bounty” program.

“We are thrilled and honored that we were selected for the donation mob,” says Commission on Aging director Georgia Durga. “This food will greatly benefit senior citizens who are low income and do not have any family to celebrate with over the holiday season. The seniors are so appreciative of the holiday gift packages.”

Comfort Keepers says it chose to help the elderly in our region because of some startling statistics. A recent AARP study says money problems force more than nine million older adults to occasionally skip meals or buy unhealthy foods.

Maloney says with this in mind, the goal of Comfort Keepers’ donation mob is to “put healthy food on the plates of those who would otherwise go without.”

Tomorrow’s donation mob is the third one Comfort Keepers has sponsored this month. Past locations included Manistee and Petoskey. Maloney says those events were a success, but she wants the Traverse City one to be even bigger. The goal is to top last year’s “Stop Senior Hunger Drive,” which brought in 3,000 pounds of food.

To encourage people to come out and donate, Comfort Keepers is offering donors the chance to win a Kindle Fire. But Maloney says the real benefit is the help it gives to local senior citizens.

“There are always opportunities to help the less fortunate in our community,” she adds. “Whether it be a donation mob, or another unique fundraiser, I would encourage other businesses to also help out those in need.”

What: Donation mob to benefit the Grand Traverse Commission on Aging
Where: Chamber of Commerce Parking Lot
When: Wednesday from noon until 2 p.m.
What to bring: Non-perishable food and hygiene products