Rotary Club of Vineland volunteers were not deterred by Covid-19 in their annual Hunger Project as they recently purchased hundreds of meal boxes and delivered them to local food banks. In past years, the club had gathered more than a hundred volunteers to assemble about 20,000 meal packets for similar distribution.
“We were obviously unable to do the project the same way this year,” said Rotary president Frank Rumick. “So instead we used the funds to purchase 233 meal boxes to accomplish our goal.”
Full Cart provided the boxes, each filled with enough items to feed one person breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three weeks or a family of three for a week. Full Cart is operated by Feeding Children Everywhere (FCE), the same international charity that Rotary partners with each year in the traditional Hunger Project.
“The need for feeding our neighbors is immediate,” said Feeding the Children committee chair Gail Marino. “We hope the donation will help until they can return to work and school.”
The local Hunger Project food pantries include Vineland, Bridgeton, and Buena Salvation Armies; Bethany Grace Church, Bridgeton; St. Vincent DePaul, Vineland; Parish of Holy Cross/Pope Francis Food Pantry, Bridgeton; Family Shelter Church of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bridgeton; Spirit & Truth Ministries, Vineland; Food Pantry at Rowan College of South Jersey/Cumberland; and Millville Housing Authority. FCE is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing healthy and nutritious food for families in need around the world. Since Covid-19 is affecting the economy in such a drastic way, FCE now uses Full Cart, its online food bank, as the principal delivery option to help the ever-growing number of families facing food insecurity.
The Vineland organization will begin meeting again when conditions allow on Tuesdays at 12:10 p.m. at the Ramada. For more information, visit vinelandrotary.com or e-mail the club at [email protected].
In car: Rotarian Gus Foster heads out to deliver some of the 233 boxes of meals to a dozen food banks in Cumberland County.
Betsy Loyle was one of the many Rotarians helping to deliver boxes of nutritious food during the club’s annual Hunger Project.
