Rotareminder for the Rotary Club of Kent
August 13, 2024
President Rachel called the meeting to order and thanked audio booth volunteers Mark Pennell and Roger Kramer. We sang God Bless America, played by David Dix. After reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, Anita Herington offered the invocation. Our second song was Don’t Fence Me In, with David Dix on piano.
There were no visiting Rotarians at today’s meeting.
Guests: Randy Lipscomb and Neiva McKim from the Akron Canton Foodbank were guests of Ralph Kletzien. Larry Lohman introduced his guest, former 4-Way Speech Contest winner and Kent State student. Pete Kenworthy was the guest of Dave Myers.
Happy Bucks:
Lee Higgins – Won a prize at the Car Show
Amanda Senn- Won ducks over the falls from the Jaycee event
Paul Organ- Son and daughter in law went to a wedding and they got to babysit their 14 month old grand child.
Larry Lohman – Happy for Grill for Good.
Dennis Campbell – All 3 events he helped run over the summer had beautiful weather.
Ann Moneypenny – Darrin got his Diploma from KSU
Roger Sidoti— He can tell Tom Hall starting tomorrow, Wednesday St Rt 43 will be down to 1 lane both ways for repairs.
Kathy Myers – Nelson rode in the MS ride Saturday, Grill for Good success
Asad Khan— Because Dave Myers’ friend is his friend too.
Rachel Kerns—Charlie Kamenash for his Eagle Scout Ceremony, Grill for Good for Larry and the Volunteers.
Quiz: Larry won the quiz identifying the Rotary Wheel was designed after the wagon wheel.
Award: Rachel presented Asad with his past president patch and we received the AC Baker award.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Stacey Richardson: Aug 20th we will be meeting at Stanton Middle School, Guido's will be catering. $14 or $15 per person, please sign up at your table.
Amanda Senn: The Walls Elementary School Association – collecting donations for Race for Education – money for new gym equipment, software subscriptions, av equipment, etc.
Will Underwood: Stownut Donut Diner suffered a fire a week ago. Eric and Denise, the owners are members of Stow / Monroe Falls Rotary. There is a go fund me account for them. Check their Facebook Page
Chas Madonio: Saturday from 11-4 – Dogs Days of Summer
Doug Fuller: Kent Historical Society Tap Talk a week from Today, 8.20.24. Judy Shaw is writing a book about the Cuyahoga River, she is going to tell about three of the stories. If we need speakers for Rotary, please let him know.
Larry Lohman: Grill for Good – Larry thanked the volunteers and announced our 3rd Place Award. Invited our Rotary to step up and help the Jaycees next year with the event.
Dennis Campbell: Invited everyone tonight for History After Hours and Thursday at 8 am at Scribbles for Coffee Hour.
TODAY’S PROGRAM: AKRON CANTON REGIONAL FOOD BANK
Ralph introduced Randy who works with 600 agencies in an 8 county area to provide food resources to them.
Randy thanked Ralph, he participates with Neeva in a home delivery program.
40% of food goes to waste every year. It happens from the farm to the table. 1967 the 1st food bank was opened in Arizona, it is still there today. The founder created a bank to distribute food out to different agencies.
Akron Canton Food Bank has grown tremendously since they opened in the 80’s. They have a fleet of trucks who drove over 270,000 miles last year. In 2022 they embarked on their second phase of their capital campaign, to double their freezer and refrigerator size. They were also able to build a new dock area, moving pickups to the back of the building to make the operation more functional and efficient. They have a market place where foods that are about to go bad goes, which is free. The goal is to get it in people’s hands before it goes bad. Partners order from the menu a day or two in advance. In 2021 they bought an old Fisher’s Food Market, where they opened a food pantry. They guessed they would feed 100-150 families in a week, last week they served over 1500 families. There is a huge need.
How your food bank works: Food and Funds are donated, stored at Foodbank, Distributed to Network Partners, given to our neighbors in need. There’s an army of volunteers who help run the foodbank.
Their warehouse stores 2-3 million pounds of food. Every 2 -3 weeks 100% of the food is turned over.
27.2 million meals and 36 million pounds of food.
They get 1% of their food from food drives and 11 % is purchased, through monetary donations. They also get food from USDA, Farmers, Corporate Partners, etc.
They serve 550 people every time they open the pantry. The pop-up pantry takes food out into the food desserts. They partner with farmers to get local produce delivery. They did 27,000 deliveries last year. More than 15,000 kids a month are helped by the feeding kids program.
Counties: Carroll, Holmes, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, Tuscarawas and Wayne
Feeding America is the foodbank of America, which is their governing body.
17,200 individuals in Portage County experiencing food insecurities
3,200 kids in Portage County experiencing food insecurities
They’re always looking for volunteers and donations, all information can be found on their website.
If you are donating food, don’t go to the grocery store and buy them because they can get more food for your money spent.
Items they need all the time: Cereal, soup, tuna, Mac and cheese, peanut butter
Everything is by weight with the foodbank. In 2023 they distributed 36 million pounds of food. They’ve been able to feed more people with less food, this year they are projecting 40 million pounds of food.
United Way is a partner, they provide referrals to the foodbank.
Around 100 employees, over 10,000 volunteers last year. The army of volunteers in Canton alone has saved them over $2 million.
The foodbank stayed in business during covid. When volunteers couldn’t come in, the US Army National Guard set up shop. They came in and guided / course corrected their systems to be more efficient. They made it very systematic and efficient.
Christy Anderson provided the response and the meeting ended with the Four Way Test.
Respectfully submitted,
Kaleena Gharky
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