Homelessness and Hunger Video Now Available

Homelessness & Hunger: Making a Difference from DeSant Productions on Vimeo.

The Homelessness and Hunger Initiative Committee has been actively presenting our video. Filmed on the premise of educating Rotarians and then their communities, we are making it available to all who want it, spreading the word about what you can do to help. In this arena the video has proven a huge success.

The committee has presented to 14 Clubs throughout the District with 3 more scheduled presentations. It has presented to several non-profits and to a gathering of Foundation donors. The purpose of the presentations is to familiarize Rotarians about homelessness and the statistics of poverty and hunger in their communities. This is followed by the HHI video, seen here in this newsletter, and then there is a call to help, not for dollars, but for dialing and drafting digits, making a call or sending letters to your senators and representatives. If your club has not had this presentation, now is the time to contact Bob Wood to schedule a one and be prepared to see your club moved to action.

HHI lends itself perfectly to applying for District Foundation Grants, so if your club is not qualified, now is the time to do so. The next Qualification Seminar is on May 19th at a location to be decided soon. We are encouraging all Clubs in our District to seek out and partner with a local non-profit in the fields of Homelessness or Hunger to provide a grant for something that an agency might need in the upcoming Rotary year. Interestingly enough, the Clubs presented to only had to go out and ask the question "What can Rotary do to help?" Many have gotten the answer!

And where, you ask, does the District get the money for these grants? Well, every dollar contributed to the Rotary Foundation in any given year by Rotarians is invested for three years. The Foundation lives on the interest of those investments. After the third year, 50% of the monies contributed by any given District returns to that District in the form of Managed Grants (local community grants), Global Grants and District Designated Funds. So as the saying goes, if you don’t give, you probably won’t get. So now is the time to give to the Foundation so you Club can continue to do local District Managed Grants!

The committee will meet again in July to determine the next steps. The committee is to be commended for its insight and foresight in the production of this video.