Bristol Rotary Pres. Paul Lafleur donates a $4000 check raised from the community to Karen Griffiths, Exec. Dir of the East Bay Food Pantry. Other Rotarians Mary Jo Tavares, and Marty Roussel. $4K feeds 66 families of 4 to 6 each for a week. Our next goal - 333 families or $20K.
Virtual Food Drive
As many of you know, we initiated a Virtual Food Drive about a month ago to help our local food banks meet the needs of the families in our community that are food insecure. Unfortunately there has always been a need for local food distribution for families doing without, but the COVID pandemic has brought this need to emergency levels. The loss of jobs, the closure of schools, empty shelves in some supermarkets, no new help from Congress has created enormous pressure on large segments of our community.
In discussions with our local food banks we learned that they much prefer getting money than donated food. They can leverage 5 cents of food into a dollar's worth. Please go to our web-page at "bristolrotaryclub.com/VFD" to see the comparisons. We started this program a month ago and mailed 531 letters requesting support from the community and have so far received over $4,000 in donations. We intend to continue the program as long as there is a need which may be a long time. Thursday we gave the East Bay Food Pantry a check for $4,000. This represents feeding 67 families of 4 to 6 each for a week.
We rushed to do this first phase because of the critical need in our community as Covid and the economic environment has gotten worse and no help foreseen from Congress. These funds were raised with a mailing to donors who have helped Bristol Rotary in the past with other charitable projects and who have come through again. We will be seeking more publicity after this phase to reach more potential donors who feel, as we do, that as helpless as we feel with this pandemic, this is something we can all do to help in some way. We don't want to see America with food lines again or ever.
Knowing that there are more individual donors and companies that want to help us help the food banks, we are setting a target of $20,000 for the next phase which represents feeding 333 families of 4 to 6 each. As a gauge, every $60 feeds another family for a week. Please help feed at least 2 families per donor. To donate, go to "bristolrotaryclub.com/VFD" to find the address to send a check or use the PayPal link to use a credit card.
In the picture above, Paul LaFleur, President of Bristol Rotary, and Karen Griffith, Executive Director of the East Bay Food Pantry, are in the center. On the left is Mary Jo Tavares, VP of Bristol Rotary’s Charities Foundation and on the right is Marty Roussel, previous President of Bristol Rotary.