Boothbay Harbor - End Local Hunger
Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club
BOOTHBAY HARBOR and DAMARISCOTTA/NEWCASTLE ROTARIANS
TEAM UP TO END LOCAL HUNGER
Matthew Martin (right), New England Manager of Outreach, addresses the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club. Nancy Stoltz, President of the Damariscotta/Newcastle Rotary Club (center), and Tony Curulla, President-Elect of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club listen carefully.
On November 8th, Rotarians from the Boothbay peninsula and from the Damariscotta and Newcastle area will convene at the Damariscotta YMCA at 2 p.m. to package at least 15,000 meals to be distributed to hungry local residents through local food pantries, backpack programs, and the Good Shepherd Food Bank. Boothbay Harbor Club President, Ham Meserve and Damariscotta/Newcastle Club President, Nancy Stoltz, have agreed to partner on this program to end local hunger.
The Rotarians have teamed up with Outreach, Inc. an Iowa non-profit, whose New England Manager is Matthew Martin, a Lutheran minister in Marshfield, MA. Matthew discovered that in New England, Maine has the highest percentage of people who are hungry (16.2%), with nearly 1 in 4 children being food insecure.
Feeding Local Hungry People
Outreach provides bulk food materials, which are then packaged into “boil and eat” meals like fortified Mac & Cheese, fortified rice and beans, and high protein pasta in tomato sauce at a cost of 25 cents per meal. Each package includes 6 servings, and can be boiled or microwaved with water. Each cooked serving contains 7 to 9 grams of protein as well as vitamins and minerals. They taste great! The sealed packages have a long shelf life, so they can be kept for those days when there’s no food in the house.
The Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor, along with the Rotary Club of Damariscotta-Newcastle, have committed to packaging at least 15,000 meals on November 8th. The two Rotary Clubs together have pledged $3,750, but if more donations come in, and more volunteers show up, they may be able to increase that number to 20,000 or more. The meals from the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club will be given to the Boothbay Area Food Bank and Food for Thought programs, the latter reaching 100 peninsula families with children lacking food over weekends.
Examples of the Outreach food packages prepared by volunteers. Each package contains 6 servings and can be cooked in water on the stove or in a microwave.