Rotary Clubs’ Meals of Hope Drive Successful

Rotary Clubs’ Meals of Hope Drive Successful

Jeff Gillespie Special to the Whig November 15, 2024
Taken from Cecil Whig:

NORTH EAST — Members of the Rotary Clubs of Elkton and North East Maryland, as well as volunteers from local schools, churches and other local organizations, met at the Cecil County Memorial VFW Post 6027 Saturday and worked together to help fight hunger in our community.

In cooperation with Meals of Hope, an organization devoted to fighting hunger in our country as well as around the world, the volunteers packed 15,000 meals to be distributed among food pantries in Cecil County. Ray of Hope Mission Center in Port Deposit is one of the recipients of the food that was packed at the event.

Courtney Barrett, Director of the Ray of Hope, said that faith-based non-profit located at 960 Craigtown Road is seeing a dramatic increase in the need for food assistance.

“With price increases in almost every area of daily living, it is becoming much harder for people to support their families,” Barrett said. “Unfortunately, is has become increasingly harder for us to keep up with the needs of our clients. Support from our community is vital for our survival.”

Meals of Hope developed seven meals specifically designed for the American palate and added vitamins, minerals and proteins to supplement an unbalanced diet. Food packages are designed to address the need for an economical, nutritious solution to aid in the fight against hunger.

Each packet contains enough food to provide six to eight meals.

“We are thankful and appreciative of the support provided by Rotary of North East to help us combat the hunger epidemic,” said Jack Day, Vice President of Meals of Hope. “These events make for a fun and rewarding day for the volunteers, and they help us deliver healthy meals to underserved individuals.”

According to the US Department of Agriculture, In Cecil County more than 12% of total households, and 15% of children, struggle regularly with food insecurity.

Helping local families to feed their children has been an ongoing effort of the Elkton and North East Rotary Clubs for a number of years. Several times every year, for the last six years, members of the two clubs get together at local grocery stores to collect nonperishable food to support our local food pantries.

Called RC4, which stands for Rotary Club Can Collections for Cecil County, the clubs have collected thousands of pounds of food to help local food pantries who are helping local families who are struggling to put enough healthy food on their tables.

To learn more or to become a member of either the Elkton or North East Rotary go to: https://www.facebook.com/ElktonRotaryClub or https://rotaryclubofnortheast.org/