Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka 11/26/12

Weather: 52 degrees and overcastS∧P: 1403

Lunch: Nacho Bar.  Steve Jackson led the flag salute.  Gary Todoroff lead the invocation.  Leona Simpson was our visiting Rotarian.  Dr. Fred  Van Vleck , Superintendent of Eureka City Schools was John Bradley's guest.  Our exchange students were in attendance, Franco and Larissa. She went to Canada with her host family, and is cooking a German dinner; you're invited, for a small fee.  Franco went to San Francisco for Thanksgiving break, and had fun.  Birthdays and Anniversaries are in the book, but a special shout out to Jim Howard, who is turning 97 next week. I'd settle for 79 right now.  The head table was empty, and next month the head table birthday rule will be strictly enforced.  John Bradley announced that you can sign up for Backpacks for Kids, so sign up!
Gregg Gardiner announced our annual Toys for Tots drive. Over 5000 kids need toys this year, so your help is needed.  Our visiting Rotarian Leona Simpson wrote a check for $125. How about you?  Gary Todoroff was prominently featured in the North Coast Journal. He came to Humboldt County many years ago and stayed in a commune, he's still here. This cost him $10.  Gregg Gardiner went to Phoenix to visit his five kids. He bought his son a TV and it cost him $200 to Paul Harris. What a guy, pretty good.  Anthony Antonville went to the San Juan Islands in September. Met a Scottish harpist. For this charming tale, he paid the max.  Raffle winners: Hank Pierson and Gary Todoroff

President Nancy Dean introduced our speaker, Anne Holcomb of Food for People. She has been running Food for People since 2001 and has been a community asset for even longer.

Program

Anne talked about her Thanksgiving. She had a family dinner of home raised turkey-a thirty pounder! Her granddaughter asked family to write down what they were thankful for, and read them aloud at the table. The theme was the love of family and friends.  The food bank customers are very grateful for the food they receive. Only 25% of the funding for the food bank is federal, the rest is all grants and donations.

Anne points out that love and understanding can help people get back on their feet. It's a common misconception that the food bank feeds the willfully homeless. She estimates only 5-10% of their patrons fall into this category. Seniors, the disabled, those with multiple jobs, families with unexpected medical expenses and people suffering personal tragedy are the bulk of their clients.  Many former patrons go on to become donors. A former Times-Standard editor, a former Eureka mayor, and local business owners have all relied on the food bank at various points in time.

One gentlemen gave a check for $2000, after being a former client of the food bank.  Kids do poorly in school when hungry, seniors risk their health when undernourished.  The food bank offers cooking and food prep classes. They distributed 1.8 million pounds of food last year, a third of it was fresh fruit and vegetables.  For the past 5 years, the food bank has offered seasonal farmer's market type giveaways in four different locations. People line up up to two hours in advance for these events.

A full report on food insecurity in our community:
http://humboldt.edu/ccrp/

Food bank clients want fresh fruit, vegetables, and meats.  Anne thanked our club for our commitment to Backpacks for Kids, which packs food for 135 kids in our community for the weekends, so they can eat over the weekend.  Food for People has over 400 volunteers who keep them running, and she expressed her gratitude to them for keeping the organization running, especially those who help the home bound seniors in our community. Over 36,000 hours were donated last year.

Visit the food bank at:

http://foodforpeople.org/


The spirit of giving is alive and well in our community, our guest was thanked, the book for the library was signed, and the meeting ended 10 minutes early.