“WE DID IT!” declared Debi Malone, team leader of Hope for the Hungry, the Rotary Clubs of Bedford and Concord’s 2024 joint meal-packing sponsorship.
Aimed to address food insecurity, aligned with this year’s Rotary International “Create Hope in the World” theme, and partnered with the New England arm of Meals of Hope, six months of planning and preparation culminated on the last Saturday in April when more than 150 volunteers packed 40,320 meals destined for local distribution in dozens of surrounding communities.
Quantities of packed meals were donated to food pantries in Bedford, Billerica, and Lexington, each of which serves up to 200 or more weekly pantry patrons.
The Middlesex Community College food pantries on their Bedford and Lowell campuses serve an estimated 350-400 students, staff, and faculty each week. MCC accepted a donation of 720 meal packages, equaling 4,320 individual meals, for distribution to their community.The majority of meal packages went to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank for distribution. MVFB serves 102 emergency feeding programs in 32 cities and towns, including Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill, and serves an average of 70,000 people monthly. Food insecurity exists all around us.
This year's team effort rebranded as Hope for the Hungry was the Rotary Club of Bedford’s 9th annual meal-packing. Eight Rotarians from Bedford and Concord formed the team core. The full Hope for the Hungry team included many others.
Middlesex Community College, our venue partner, was vital to our success, as it has been in prior years. After a pandemic-forced hiatus, we gratefully returned to the Bedford campus this year for the first time since 2019. MCC’s host facilities and the time and support of their administration and staff made Hope for the Hungry possible.
At the forefront of the team was project partner Meals of Hope, a Florida-based non-profit committed to combatting the food insecurity epidemic at the local level. Jack Day, organization V.P. and head of the Chelmsford-based New England arm of MOH, was central to the advance planning. His hands-on guidance and that of family members working with him throughout the meal-packing were key to the effort’s success.
The heart of the team was the 150+ volunteers who, over the course of two hours, worked in teams of ten, steadily pouring into funnels measured scoops of rice, beans, dried vegetables, soy protein, seasonings, and vitamins to fill more than 6,700 six-serving Fortified Rice and Bean meal packages.
Filled packages were weighed, sealed, and boxed while other volunteers kept the teams supplied, shuttling rice, beans, and other ingredients to fill the quickly emptying bins at each packing station.
Volunteers of all ages from Bedford and surrounding communities included parents with their children, individuals, some of whom were repeat packing volunteers from prior years, and first-timers. In addition to Bedford and Concord, seven other Rotary clubs from Billerica, Burlington, Chelmsford, Lowell, Merrimack Valley, Newton, and Westborough were represented. In total, 38 Rotarians participated.
