April 11, 2020 - District Governor Chris Woodruff announced a donation by Rotary District 5440 to the Food Bank of the Rockies – for Wyoming, and to the food banks in Wells, Moffet, and Routte Counties Colorado and Scotts Bluff Nebraska. The District donated $28,000 from funds designated for service and from the district reserves. Eleven thousand five hundred dollars was directed to food banks in Wyoming. The funds were apportioned by the relative numbers of persons served in each food bank system. The District has also request an additional $25,000 for food banks from The Rotary Foundation Disaster Relief Fund.
In Jackson, nineteen years ago the Jackson Cupboard was setup to distribute into the Jackson Hole Community the food gathered by the Boy Scouts of America's Scouting for Food—their fall food drive. The Jackson Food Cupboard continues to serve the community from its room in the basement of St John’s Church. The Jackson Rotary Lunch Club provided an initial $500 donation as seed money to get us started and to set up a food pantry.
Over the years the Jackson Cupboard has expanded and responded to our neighbors and friends’ short-term emergency needs and long-term disability needs. In these days of growing food insecurity, the Jackson Cupboard is expanding access to food. The distribution center is now opened on Saturdays. /The current client list serves over 400 mouths a week.
The food cupboard has partnered with the Food Bank of the Rockies to help fill some of our core staple food items over the years. Last week we received a Food Bank of the Rockies delivery of four-pallets with over 3,975 pounds and 260 cases of food. Included in this delivery were some critical items of flour, noodles, canned chicken, eggs and tomatoes. All of these have been in high demand but in short supply. The Jackson Cupboard is at the end of the food line for the Food Bank of the Rockies but they have been a critical partner in concerned and productive folks in our community. A number of Rotarians of note in our community are quietly working to collect and distribute food to the hard working citizens of Jackson.
Rotary International is a worldwide service club with focus on humanity. There are 35,000 clubs in Rotary International with a total of 1.2 million Rotarians. In Jackson Hole, there are just under 200 Rotarians who are members of three Rotary Clubs in Jackson. The funds mentioned in this article are disbursed from The Rotary Foundation.