Waterloo Rotary Reporter (Apr 13, 2020)

April 13 Program: Northeast Iowa Food Bank

No community is exempt from struggling with hunger. Since federal nutrition programs don’t reach everyone in need, food banks like ours help fill the gap for thousands of people each year. Learn more about hunger in your community by exploring an interactive County Hunger Summary map and download a County Hunger Summary here.

Fellow Rotarian and one of the busiest people in the Cedar Valley Barb Prather, Executive Director of Northeast Iowa Food Bank - will join us for a Zoom meeting. She'll share the latest from the Food Bank and how her staff has risen to the challenge of providing meals to hundreds of new families that have never experienced food insecurity.

The Northeast Iowa Food Bank hosted a live conversation with Barb and members of her staff. They discuss access to food in today's climate, how they are preparing for the months to come, and how community support helps protect the most vulnerable communities during these trying times.

Join Our Zoom Meeting at noon by clicking this logo:

Meeting ID: 253 962 559
Password: 641559

Rotary Supports Salvation Army

Due to no in-person weekly meetings... our club has decided to donate the money that would have been used for our lunches to non-profits in the community. The most recent donation was $1,000 to the Salvation Army, and below is a letter from fellow Rotarian and Salvation Army Captain Shannon Thies:

Hi Mark;

We are so very humbled by this. Thank you!

I should share that we are very busy at The Salvation Army, and due to volunteer shortages (which are understandable) Martin and I have rolled up our sleeves and are serving in areas that need extra man-power. It might be a while before I am able to tune-in to a Rotary Meeting. I miss everyone, though, so please share my well wishes and prayers to my fellow Rotarians.

Here is an update on how The Salvation Army is serving our community during COVID-19:

Food Giveaway:

We are serving a lunch to the community beginning at 11:30am on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. This is done out of our North Parking lot drive-thru style. Prior to mid-March when the concerns of the virus began in our community, we were enjoying lunch with about 50 people every time. We are feeding 120-140 people every time, now. We are seeing families and people who have never been in need before. It is a great honor to serve our community with some good-ol’ home-cooked comfort food.

We are also giving out perishable goods at the same time on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Emergency Services

We are still taking rental, utilities, food box, household goods, gas voucher, prescriptions and personal hygiene requests (yes, we do have toilet paper!!). The care management for this is done online and via phone calls. We are anticipating that this crisis will have a long-term effect on our community.

Housing Services

Our 3 shelters in town are still open. We do have a family in our Family Shelter and our men & women’s shelters are taking new people if they are not showing symptoms of the flu. We have limited our census to one person or family per room so that if someone should need to isolate, there is a comfortable place for them to do so.

Our staff are being incredible and compassionate during this crisis and we are so very thankful for them.

We are committed to serve our community in the same ways we have in the past, it just looks a little differently right now. We are blessed.

I can’t wait to see you in a socially-distanced-appropriate-interaction. 😊

Shannon Thies

Meet Future Rotarian Clara Aronson

Clara Aronson was born April 2 to Brian and Tiffany Aronson! Congrats to the whole family!

Maryland Rotary Clubs Raise $30K To Feed First Responders

April 11, 2020 - ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — The Rotary Clubs of Parole, Annapolis and Glen Burnie announced Saturday it has established a relief fund for first responders working on the frontlines during the coronavirus pandemic.

The project aims to support healthcare workers, firefighters, police officers and other essential personnel during the pandemic by providing them with meals prepared by local restaurants.

About 3,000 meals will be provided per-week for six weeks for the first responders.

The initiative will also help restaurants sustain their operations and employees.

The plan was accelerated to begin deliveries to Anne Arundel Medical Center and Baltimore Washington Medical Center on Easter Sunday.

Each of the three Rotary Clubs contributed $5,000 to the effort, which was matched with $15,000 from Rotary International District 7620 to produce $30,000 for the initiative.