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Rotarians start Kids Against Hunger club

Photo

Photo by Matthew Wisniewski

(L to R) Dave Silker, Gil Sedor, Anne Thomas, Rhiannon Thomas, Steve Thompson and Natasha Thomas work together to fill meals for Kids Against Hunger. The meals they were making were going to victims of the recent flood.

Photo

Photo by Matthew Wisniewski

Jim Klein poors a cup of rice into a plastic bag held by Eric Larson, while filling meals for Kids Against Hunger. Volunteers were packaging meals for people affected by the recent flood.

JANESVILLE — Wearing hairnets, aprons and plastic gloves, the line of adults was hungry to dig into its volunteer project—Kids Against Hunger-Rock County Rotary.

Cindy Helms, a member of the Beloit Rotary Club, scooped uncooked rice from a plastic tub and dumped it into a plastic bag held open by another volunteer in the manual assembly.

“I came to do my part,’’ she said, proudly wearing a “I helped Kids Against Hunger … local people making a world of difference’’ button.

“It’s a fun way to get together with people and meet other Rotarians,’’ she said.

Joining her club were the Janesville Morning, Janesville Noon and Edgerton Rotary clubs, which formed the program to feed starving and malnourished people around the world. The board is made up of representatives from each of the local Rotary clubs. More than 30 Kids Against Hunger satellite organizations exist throughout the United States and Canada.

“We are the first Kids Against Hunger satellite in Wisconsin and the first Rotary clubs participating in this venture,’’ said David Warren, vice president of the new nonprofit.

“It’s a great project with so many hungry, and wonderful we can contribute to helping,’’ Helms said.

The local Kids Against Hunger kickoff event took place in mid-May, when volunteering Rotarians took four hours to package 18,144 meals that were divided between four local food pantries in Janesville, Beloit, Edgerton and Milton. Packaging took place at a vacant North Main Street building in Janesville and was an in-kind gift from the Hendricks Development Group.

“We are able to house our program there for $1 a year,” Warren said.

Flooding forced the second packaging event on Monday and Tuesday to move to another Hendricks-owned building. Rotarians packaged 15,571 meals for the local pantries.

Future packaging operations will go to starving people in international locations already supported by the four local Rotary clubs, including Haiti, the Philippines and Cameroon.

“Kids Against Hunger-Rock County is free to designate where this locally packaged food is needed and where it will be shipped,” he said.

“If you have a need for food, call us,” said John Wong, president of the local Kids Against Hunger.

The goal of the new corporation is to use between 90 percent and 95 percent of all donations for food and transportation costs. It used $6,000 in initial start-up funds that came from the Rotary clubs to buy supplies to package 5,000 bags of food to make 30,000 meals.

With an initial goal of obtaining $1,000 of funding a month and eventually $2,500 a month, the local Kids Against Hunger program will buy, package and distribute between 4,000 to 10,000 meals a month. Volunteers will handle all labor, and no employees will be paid.

“This has the potential to stamp out hunger in the world,” said Gary Bersell, a Janesville Rotarian.

KIDS AGAINST HUNGER FOOD PACKAGES

-- Each package contains six servings.

-- Can be prepared in less than 20 minutes when added to boiling water.

-- Contain a rice and soy mix fortified with 21 vitamins and minerals, six dehydrated vegetables and chicken flavoring.

KIDS AGAINST HUNGER FOOD COSTS

-- Each serving: 23 cents.

-- One meal bag containing six servings: $1.38.

-- One box with 36 bags that feeds 216 people: $50.

-- One pallet that holds 33 boxes, 1,188 packaged meals and feeds 7,128 people: $1,640.

TO HELP

Kids Against Hunger-Rock County Rotary is accepting donations of money to buy ingredients to make more food packages. To make a tax-deductible contribution, call Dave Warren, (608) 201-2992, or John Wong, (608) 751-4028.

Volunteers from schools, families, churches, senior centers, corporations, service organizations and youth groups are needed to help package meals. If interested, call Gary Bersell, (608) 755-4123.