Joan Johnson introduced Citizen Who Cares Priscilla Bartle and Linda Zimmerman from Neighbors in Need as today's speakers. Priscilla spoke of her long-term service to various community organizations, including Professional School for Children, from which she was hired as an administrator because of her medical background working with doctors. Some of her other areas of commitment were to FISH, which provided finanacial, physical and moral aid to those in Andover, an organization which unfortunately fell victim to the two-parent working family. She continues to be involved with a special needs young man whom she has tutored over 10 years and who regularly attends South Church with the assistance of several of the church's young people.
Priscilla has also been a long-time volunteer at Bread and Roses where she participates in serving meals to the guests. Much of the food they receive comes from Neighbors in Need Food Pantry, and Pricilla segued into an introduction of Linda Zimmerman, Executive Director of that very busy organization.
Linda began by speaking of the great need for food to supplment the meals for families in Lawrence in particular, where a great number of children go to bed hungry every night, and which translates into poor performance in school.
She said that their food donations come from many sources in addition to her budget. One of the largest donations comes from the Saturday in May food collection solicited by the postal workers in Andover and Lawrence. She said that collection can last for most of the summer. Others who donate are Shaws, Panera, Whole Foods. A few of the big companies in the area have teams of workers who help to distribute the food from their warehouse in Dundee Park.
A recent incentive that has been growing is the cooperation with a farm in Windham, NH, where the workers are able to glean the remaining corn and tomatoes from the second harvest. In this way NIN is able to provide fresh produce to help supplement the heavy carbohydrate diet which contributes to weight problems among the poor and needy. Another plus to this program is that some of the children of recipients have been able to visit the farm and learn about the animals while working to harvest the crops.
Once again we have been able to learn about the wonderful work that so many in our community do to give back fo the larger community. Thank you to Priscilla and Linda for being a part of it.
Assistant District Governor Terri Kidder took the podium to remind us about the $1 million matching gift to Rotary from the Gates Foundation, and the responsibility of all members to contribute to the matching fund. She presented us with a pillowcase printed with the theme "Make Dreams Come True," which she suggested we could either use as a receptacle for the donations, or as a reminder that we should all be thinking about this worthy cause.
The meeting ended with those assembled picking up their assigned tickets from Helen Nicolopoulos, who has them very efficiently catalogued and assembed for distribution. If you haven't received yours yet, be prepared to get them next week, or contact Helen for a pickup. Thanks for your help.