Adam Lange and the United Cape Patriots are known as some of former President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters in Massachusetts — even now.
Trump may no longer be in office, but Lange and his organization haven’t gone away. Recently, they have embarked on a new mission: to combat food insecurity among veterans and the civilian population.
Lange, the founder of the United Cape Patriots, has partnered his organization with Massachusetts Military Support Foundation, enlisting his affiliated contingent of conservative activists to help distribute food to veterans and others in need amid the coronavirus pandemic through the foundation’s Food4Vets program.
“So in 2020 United Cape Patriots grew from about 200 members to over 900 members on the back of Donald Trump,” Lange said in an interview. “We sponsored over 100 Trump events in our community and grew like crazy. We were also looking forward and seeing how we could maintain this momentum after the election. We didn’t want to squander it.”
“We call it a pivot for freedom,” he added. “So the objectives are to keep our team together so we’re strong and ready to fight the next political battle, and we’re getting people organized around towns with town captains so they can fight the battles along Cape Cod.”
Lange said that he saw the Food4Vets program as an opportunity to not only keep his organization connected but to help those in need amid the coronavirus pandemic as well. Lange said that it worked out well because the Food4Vets program has a distribution center in Hyannis and the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation has a branch based out of Joint Base Cape Cod. The distribution center there is at the Hyannis Transportation Center, and members of the United Cape Patriots did their first volunteer work there on Saturday, January 23.
“They really need help,” Lange said of the food distribution center. “They’re well-funded, but they need people, volunteers. I have people. They have resources. I’m personally working on opening six additional distribution centers in the next two weeks between the Boston area and Fall River. We’ll use some of our partners like Rayla Campbell who has a lot of support around the Hub. We’re working on getting weekly distribution sites where we can get them at the same time to get these veterans in a rhythm.”
Campbell, of Randolph, is a conservative Republican who ran a write-in campaign against U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Dorchester).
Lange explained how the program works and what his volunteers do to help provide meals for veterans.
He said that the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation provides them with a list of 500 names and supplies the food, and then he and the other volunteers help distribute it to those veterans and civilians. He said at a typical event, they have about 15 volunteers.
“We know 500 vets will show up,” Lange said. “That amount of product is dropped the night before in a temp controlled trailer. It’s all prepackaged. So what we’re doing is unloading pallets full of shrink-wrapped boxes. We put them on the ground, stack them up, and distribute them.”
The food, according to the foundation’s web site, comes in two-week supplies. The food boxes weigh about 32 pounds apiece and feature “perishable and nonperishable food items including fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products and meat products,” according to the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation’s web site. Some events are specifically for veterans while others are also open to the general public. The web site mmsfi.org states which events are for veterans or the general population, and allows people to register to be put on the list to receive food.
NewBostonPost also reached out to the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation and spoke with Paul Rifkin, a friend of Lange’s with polar opposite political views, about his volunteer work. Rifkin led the Move to Remove movement on the Cape during Trump’s presidency, trying to oust the 45th president. The U.S. Army veteran has been volunteering for the support foundation since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. He said the foundation is grateful to have Lange and his supporters join the mission.
“Everyone wins from this,” Rifkin said. “We’re moving away from political stances and instead we want to serve people in need. Right now, we’re facing a situation of grave danger not only from polarization and the potential for violence, but people don’t have food. People don’t have jobs now. The more people who are willing to help out here, the more likely that America will be able to get out of this and stand tall.”
Rikfin said that a couple of weeks ago, he had breakfast with Lange and Don Cox, the president of the Massachusetts Military Support Foundation, and that Cox offered Lange and the United Cape Patriots the opportunity to come volunteer. Lange accepted.
Rifkin noted that this meeting came after The Cape Cod Times published a negative story about United Cape Patriots in which an anti-Trump political scientist labeled Lange’s organization as fascist; this same political scientist said that Trump was the worst president in American history in a recent interview with New England Cable News. Rifkin, despite his political disagreements with Lange, strongly disagreed with that characterization of his friend’s organization.
Lange and Campbell are working to get a site set up in the Lombardo’s parking lot in Randolph to do the same thing. Campbell, who plans to run again for Congress in 2022 as a Republican in the Seventh Congressional District against Pressley, told NewBostonPost in a telephone interview on Friday that she is glad to take part.
“I just thought it was a great opportunity, and we have a huge population of veterans in this area who could use some help in these times,” Campbell said. “These are people who put their lives on the line for us, and it’s a lot of people with families who aren’t on welfare. We have this amazing opportunity to help people, and it feels great to be a part of this.”
In addition to Randolph, Fall River, Hyannis, and Eastham — where the United Cape Patriots have partnered with the Elks lodge as a distribution site — the volunteers are looking for spots in Marshfield and Plymouth to distribute food for veterans.
Lange said that anyone interested in helping alongside the United Cape Patriots can email [email protected] for more information.
