On 10 October the Whatcom North and Pacific Northwest Passport Rotary Clubs, with the Bellingham Rotaract Club, initiated their new PNW Rotary Food Project, better known as the Rotary Green Bag Food Drive.
Based on the Neighborhood Food Project, a nationally successful program with 40 such projects, the Rotary Green Bag Food Drive will now collect and deliver food to the Ferndale Food Bank six times a year to support our neighbors and friends.
In the Service Area of the Ferndale (WA) Food Bank, 4,200 of the residents get food support from the Ferndale Food Bank. Over 40% are children and 20% are seniors. There is a real need to collect food and make it available for our neighbors in this challenging time.
The Rotary Clubs combined efforts to begin this project, with a modest donation of funds and the commitment of several members from each Club to form a Steering Committee. The Clubs also submitted a request for a Matching Grant from District 5050 and were granted USD $2,500, matching what they had raised themselves.
The program is quite simple, and can involve the whole community. Starting with the Rotarians who live and work in the Ferndale area, donors were signed up to receive a Green Bag, with the promise of collecting food for the October pickup. Rotarians, serving as Neighborhood Coordinators, then shared the duty of picking up the Green Bags from the donors’ doorsteps, and leaving a replacement Green Bag in its place. 40 bags were donated weighing 752 pounds. We expect to double the food collected on our next pickup date on 12 December. All community members are invited to volunteer, which will be needed as the program grows.
This worthwhile Community Service project addresses a serious need and creates visibility for Rotarians As People of Action. Similar Green Bag programs are under development in the US portion of District 5050 under the guidance of the Pacific Northwest Passport Rotary Club and the project Steering Committee. The program can be offered wherever there is a Food Bank willing to accept donations on this time of COVID, and a Rotary or Rotaract Club willing to coordinate the efforts.
For more information or to schedule a presentation to your Club, please contact Allen Stockbridge or at 360 223 8346.
Pictured above are (l to r)- Dale Holt, Allen Stockbridge, Jake Smith, Bryan Hennessy, Tim Villhauer, and Laurie Lloyd