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Oct. 28, 2017 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Join us in our Women in Rotary initiative! You do not need to be: 1) a woman 2) a member of our Rotary Club to participate in this event to provide affordable housing for families of St Tammany Parish. RSVP through this site so we know you are coming. Campbell's Coffee & Tea will provide morning coffees. Covington Rotary Club will provide lunch. Habitat for Humanity will provide water -- please bring a refillable container to cut down on waste. See the Habitat for Humanity volunteer page on what to wear and what not wear. General guidelines: closed-toed shoes. If you are a Rotarian, please wear a Rotary shirt; if you need one, we will have some for sale. We will also have Rotary hats and visors for sale. Help us make a big impact on housing and also a big visual impact for Rotary. |
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Dec. 23, 2017 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Feeding the Needy
Each year, the Covington Rotary Club, with the assistance of hundreds of community volunteers and donors, leads FEEDING THE NEEDY (FTN), a project initially to ensure that school children are fed while school cafeterias are closed for the long winter break at Christmastime.
Feeding the Needy does more than provide a Christmas meal. Every year on December 23 and 24, volunteers from all over the area come together to prepare Christmas boxes that include: a 12-14 pound cooked turkey with 6 side dishes and dessert. Each box has enough food to feed a family of four. Larger families receive additional boxes. On Christmas morning, Rotarians and other community volunteers hand deliver the boxes to the homes of the identified families. Each family only needs to heat the food and it is ready to serve as a substantial Christmas Day meal and leave plenty of extra to help on the days leading up to school reopening.
The program began in 2002 in close cooperation with the Covington Food Bank, and that year helped to feed over 300 people. In 2005, given the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, FTN also responded to the demand for single meals to individuals displaced by the storm. Since then the program has grown in scope and reach and in 2014, FTN provided over 1500 boxes to families in Covington and across St. Tammany and Washington Parishes. We continue to work closely with The Covington Food Bank and that agency counts FTN as a critical component of addressing community hunger needs in our communities.
We accept donations to this project and out other initiatives year-round. FTN relies heavily on donations from local individuals, business, and foundations and the volunteer efforts of individuals, congregations and service organizations in addition to members of the Covington Rotary Club. Because of this wonderful support and strong partnerships, FTN is able to operate with ZERO administrative costs.
CLICK HERE to make a donation to the Covington Rotary Foundation, a 501(c)3 entity with corresponding tax status. Should you prefer to mail a check, please send it care of the Covington Rotary Club PO Box 541 Covington, LA 70433
Application Locations for Feeding the Needy:
Covington Food Bank
Habitat for Humanity, Covington
Churches
Schools
Samaritan Center, Mandeville
Feeding the Needy Volunteer Information
located on our Home Page under Upcoming Events
FOOD BANK: Gather names from 8:30 AM – Noon (come for an hour) at the Covington Food Bank in December on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
DATA ENTRY: Baldwin Motors, 1730 N Hwy 190 from November 30th through December 20th. Please contact Diona at 985-892-2203 to schedule a time to volunteer.
SAINT PAUL’S SCHOOL CAFETERIA DEC. 23rd and 24th from 9AM until finished:
WELCOME/SIGN-IN DESK: 9:00 a.m. until finished, track service hours, register volunteers, answer questions about the project and Rotary, assist where needed, including running errands if necessary. This team will also handle securing each day’s lunch for the volunteers.
CHILDREN’S AREA: 9:00 a.m. (all children between the ages of 4 and 9 will go to the Children’s Area and not to the cafeteria this year) – children this year will be making thank you cards to go with the letters from the Covington Rotary Club to the many sponsors and donors and volunteers who help make this program happen every year; the children will also be making Christmas cards to include in the boxes to make them extra-special this year. Families with crafting supplies are invited to donate them to this purpose.
LOADING DOCK: 9:00 a.m. the first part of the morning of Dec 23rd is dedicated to unloading the canned and boxed food, boxes, supplies and turkeys that will go into the boxes. Generally, we have a line of people that begins inside the refrigerated trucks and extends into the cafeteria. The turkeys and other foods are removed from the trucks and then stacked in the center of the cafeteria. At the same time, we have another line of folks unloading canned goods from another truck or trailer parked in the front of the cafeteria. We recommend you bring a pair of gloves to handle the frozen turkeys. This team will also place the turkeys in bags to contain the condensation while they thaw and to protect the workspace from too much moisture. Over the course of the day, this team will oversee placing the supplies in each box and ensuring that each box is packed correctly. At the end of each day, that day’s packed boxes will be loaded back into the refrigerated trucks or the coolers in the cafeteria.
RECYCLING and ROOM PREP: 9:00 a.m. all of the chairs need to be stacked and moved out of the way of the work that will be taking place throughout the days of the 23rd-25th. Then the tables need to be arranged in a way that allows work to be done both around them and on top of them. This team of workers will also begin the process of assembling the boxes while the food and supplies are being unloaded from the trucks. As the supplies are unloaded this crew is also responsible for collapsing and collecting all used cardboard boxes. These will be taken to a recycling center periodically. When all boxes are in the coolers and ready for delivery the room prep team will also help fold the tables and prepare the cafeteria for the volunteers who will come on Christmas morning to make the deliveries. Signage indicating the areas that will be delivered to will be posted on the windows above the tables with the maps. This last part requires coordination with the computer team.
SAINT PAUL’S SCHOOL CAFETERIA DECEMBER 25 – 7:30/9:30AM
DELIVERY STATIONS – these are usually manned by Rotarians, but we may need volunteers from the crowd. This team hands out the addresses and maps to the volunteers.
LOADING BAYS – we need a few strong adult helpers at each of the three or four loading areas to ensure that each delivery vehicle has the correct number of boxes for delivery.
DELIVERY/GOOD SAMARITANS – the bulk of the people who volunteer on Christmas Day come to deliver the boxes to the needy families of Covington and the surrounding areas. After a thank you announcement, a Christmas prayer and perhaps a song or two, the individuals and families who will deliver the Christmas boxes line up according the geographic region they hope to deliver to. The volunteers/Rotarians at the Delivery Stations assist with the distribution of the addresses and maps and then the volunteers get into their cars and head to the loading bays where they pick up the boxes. At that point, the volunteers follow the directions on the maps and begin delivering. Rarely are there problems with the maps and addresses, but if there are, each volunteer will have a contact number of the family to whom they are delivering and a trouble-shooting number to contact John Baldwin.
CLEAN-UP/FLOATERS –after the maps and boxes are handed out we need to clean up the cafeteria, kitchen, and coolers, and put everything back the way we found it. The last batches of recycling and trash need to be taken care of and the premises swept and closed. With 8-10 people this can be done quickly and everyone can be back with their families by 9:30 or so.
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