March 5, 2015 Meeting of West Bay Rotary

Deb Hitchings introduced three local high school students who received scholarships from the Club to attend the Camden Conference this year. The topic of the Conference this year was Russia, and the students shared their impressions of the experience which dealt with Russia and the current situation with the Ukraine.

Terry Bregy set the tone for the speaker by reminding us of the 178,000 Mainers who live with food insecurity when he introduced Jane Bennett, president of the Camden Christian Area Food Pantry

The pantry was founded in 1981 by five area churches: Chestnut Street Baptist, First Congregational, John Street Methodist, Lady of Good Hope Roman Catholic and St. Thomas Episcopal.

FMI you can visit www.camdenfoodpantry.org. She shared videos. Maine ranks 11^th in the US for food insecurity. One in four Maine children experience food insecurity. Located on Mt. Battie Street, the towns served by the pantry are Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville, Rockport, Searsmonth, Union and Washington. In those towns, children 26% – more than 40% are eligible for free or reduced lunch cost. The pantry has hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and serve on average 900-1000 people who can visit once per week. Some 25 families that cannot access the Pantry also received delivered food mostly in Camden, Rockport and Lincolnville.

They get food from Good Shepherd Food Bank, Hannaford, Erickson Farm in the summer months provides fresh produce and people in the community, including West Bay Rotary.

She shared a video about the Good Shepherd Food Bank and the Mainers helping Mainers farm program to buy fresh produce from local farms to provide to food banks in Maine, removing the transportation cost for produce trucked from other states.

Skip Day presented gifts from the club and members to support the Pantry.

Mark Masterson discussed the West Bay Rotary Foundation that is an arm of the club providing support to area non-profits, that he has chaired since it began and is looking for those who are interested in joining the board, with 3 of the 7 board positions open. Anyone interested should talk to Mark.

Barbara Heard reminded us of the box-top collection project to support area education.

Jim Potter read a thank-you card from a Vocational Scholarship student from Appleton in school at the University of Maine - Presque Isle who was unable to attend with the other scholarship students recently.

Peter Berke is counting ducks at the Dressers this Friday evening, and the committee is meeting at 7:30a at the Bagel Cafe next week, March 11.

Next week's speaker is Tom Jamrog to talk about his hiking adventures.