May 14th - The Million Meal Packaging Event

Okay, we are finally in May, just two months of catching up to do.

You know, our district has a project where we give dictionaries to all third grade (some do fourth grade) students in public school. It is huge and ongoing and wonderful. It is such a good time to give these kids what, in many cases, is their first book and then review it with them, pointing out all the neat reference sections including, of course, the worlds longest word. But this year our district did something really cool, beyond cool.

On May 14th, at three locations (north, south and central within the district) thousands of Rotarians and people they recruited got together and packaged in excess of ONE MILLION MEALS - all of which stayed within out district. I think the final total was something like one million thirty thousand. Volunteers worked in two our shifts. Some of us worked the whole event. The money for the product was raised my Rotarians, $150K, no small feat. The meal packaging was organized by Meals of Hope, formerly part of Kids Against Hunger. There are two Rotarians that deserve huge, huge, kudos, but I am not naming names in this blog.

I have to tell you, I am typing this on July 2nd and it still makes my eyes misty. Can you imagine, one million meals. A huge percentage of kids receive free or subsidized meals at schools. When school lets out, hunger sets in. This is just too cool for words.