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Announcements: - Dave thanked the group that was at the Lord’s Lunch last Saturday: Brad Ehrhart, Randy and Susan Smith, Anne Moneypenny, Christie Anderson, Bill Myers, John Ryan, Doug Fuller and Allison Myers. - Carol Crimi gave an update on the April board meeting. The board awarded over $9,000 of grants to four organizations. $4,000 went to Kent City Schools to support the very popular summer reading program. Great Trail Council of Scouts USA received $1,000 to keep down expenses of a recruitment program. They awarded $2,466 to Kent Social Services for backpacks and school supplies. And the Kent Historical Society received $2,000 to fund a storymap internship. - Will Underwood said the District Four Way Test Speech Contest was held Saturday. Our student, Mary Kline, went on to the final round (but didn’t win). - The Kent Club will be hosting an exchange student (a high school senior) from Brazil, and a youth counselor is needed for that program. Must be of the same sex as the student. See Dave if interested. - Asad Khan mentioned that there is also a need for three host families. Asad will be one of the hosts, but one or two other families are needed. Program: Nithya Venkataraman introduced Jackie Halay, an entrepreneur who started her own charcuterie business. Nithya praised her for taking something she was passionate about and turning it into a successful business. Jackie introduced herself as owner and founder of 2 Board Sisters, which offers charcuterie boards, grazing tables and more. She is also a wife, mother of two kids and teacher. She has lived in Stow for nine years, went to Bowling Green for undergrad in early childhood education and earned her master’s degree from Kent State in special education. In February 2020, she took two years of maternity leave and then had to decide whether to resign or go back to teaching. She decided to stay home with the kids. But she wanted to do something else with her time. She had previously considered starting a charcuterie company. Charcuterie boards have been around for all of time and are becoming more popular. She grew up in a family that always entertained people at their house with lots of food. Food is her love language, she said. She did a lot of research online and sought out advice from other charcuterie business owners. It’s one thing to make it and sell it to friends, but it’s something else to reach a public audience. The company has since taken off, and she now has event orders booked through 2023. People love ordering from her company because of the convenience. There’s a lot involved: Planning, shopping, washing produce, cutting food, weighing it, creating the board, taking pictures and posting them on social media. Boards have a minimum of 15 items and sometimes up to 30. That can get costly versus doing it herself. She works with wholesalers and can provide boards more inexpensively than you can do yourself. 2 Board Sisters offers charcuterie boards, grazing tables, charcuterie cups, papier mache letters/numbers, crudites platters, individual sizes and brunch. Customers include weddings, corporate events, or even just date nights. Jackie markets the company through social media, sales to repeat customers, vendor events, paid advertising and word of mouth. Looking ahead, she doesn’t see herself stopping anytime soon. She has taught charcuterie classes and offers private classes. She loves to use her education background in a different way. 2 Board Sisters has an agreement with a winery in early fall that will be selling her charcuterie in individual boxes. And she’s building a new website. Amanda Senn gave the response. She congratulated Jackie on making the leap and starting her company. She said she identifies with using food as a way to gather people together, and she suggested putting together a Rotary charcuterie class.
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