District Governor Karin Gaffney and President David Zonia signed the Rotary Community Corps Organization Form during her Official Visit to the Sturbridge Rotary Club, just this Monday, October 16th. This will be a Rotary Community Corps (RCC) jointly sponsored by TWO Rotary clubs, to be known as the Rotary Community Corps of Sturbridge & Southbridge. Rotary created these corps to provide a formal mechanism that provides local non-Rotarian volunteers with an organizational structure to do good in their local communities. As such they operate largely independent of the sponsoring clubs, but still report to them for their actions.
The RCC’s first project will be the creation of the “Community Food Collaborative”, a community garden supplying fresh garden produce (primarily vegetables) that will go entirely to the St. John Paul II Food Pantry in Southbridge, MA, to supplement the dry and canned foods they currently offer.
This food pantry has an excellent reputation for providing food to the hungry in Sturbridge and Southbridge. Over several years the Sturbridge Rotary Club has developed a strong relationship with this food pantry and provided substantial annual funding. This project will strengthen the bond and make a significant difference to the diet of people using the pantry.
The garden plot is owned by the Sturbridge Federated Church, who gave permission for the RCC to use it for this purpose. It is located close to the Sturbridge Town Hall.
The current organizing committee comprises a professional landscape architect, 7 Rotarians, an avid gardener and a representative of the food pantry. As such there is good communications within the committee, covering all the bases.
The intention is to engage volunteer gardeners in a range of ages, from high school students doing community service to retirees wishing to de-stress in a garden while also helping the community.
The ground will be cleared of weeds, then planted in the Spring.
A website (http://cfcgarden.org) has been set up for this RCC project, which will be used to schedule volunteer activity, report garden news, fund-raise and serve as the window to our communities.