Sergeant at Arms David "Brom" Bromwich opened this week's meeting by acknowledging that Calgarians live, work and play in the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 First Nations and the Metis Nation. President Rick Erven welcomed everyone to the meeting. President Rick also acknowledged the decision made this week by the Federal Court of Appeal, permitting the construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion to proceed.
Michael Pierson and Manon Mitchell led the singing of O Canada, and this week's greeter Julie Visser delivered the invocation.
President Rick thanked our meeting volunteers Shondell Sabad, Doug Webb, and Bill Gillott.
Jennifer Lavier Jankovic welcomed five guests and acknowledged the four club members celebrating birthdays this week.
Do you know that in the Rotary world February is Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention month? Conflict displaces millions of people, and ninety percent of its casualties are civilians, half of whom are children. Rotary pursues projects addressing the structural causes of conflict, such as poverty, inequality, ethnic tension, lack of access to education, and the unequal distribution of resources.
Rotary's anniversary is also this month as Paul Harris founded Rotary on February 23rd, 1905.
Announcements:
Mayor Naheed Nenshi's State of the City address to the club is fast approaching. Tickets to this event must be pre-purchased online.
Barbara Young presented the club with a banner that she brought back from the Club Rotario Los Altos Quetzaltenango, a newly formed Rotary club that admits men and women as members. She reminded us that this is an exciting development as some of the older clubs in Guatemala still only accept men as members.
Madeleine King told us that the Calgary Reads volunteer reading group is taking shape and that an organizational meeting will take place at noon on February 12th. Please contact Madeleine if you wish to join this group.
The Rotary Club of Calgary West's 6th Plant Sale fundraiser is underway. The plant sale's hanging baskets, and planters feature big, beautiful blooms, with proceeds from the sale shared between RC Calgary West projects and NSTEP. The plant catalogue and order form are available on the rotarywestfundraising.ca website. The deadline for placing orders is Friday, February 14th.
The ability to read well is essential to success in life. Strong reading skills can lead to increased earnings, higher education, and more social capital. Conversely, children who struggle to read by the end of Grade 3 are at considerable risk for low self-esteem, learning challenges and high school non-completion, leading to a variety of adverse life outcomes.
Calgary Reads has volunteer opportunities for what hopefully will become a regular group activity. As Rotarians, this is where our service can make a significant impact!
Madeleine King will be organizing a foundational meeting between our volunteer group and Calgary Reads’ Manager of Volunteers at the Inglewood house. Please contact Madeline by email or call (403) 400-4404 to add your name to our list!
Bring your family and friends to our annual Ski and Stroll on March 14th. The $30.00 price for bus transportation includes hot chocolate and treats, but does not include lift tickets. Our 7:15 am departure will be from the Canadian Tire store at Richmond Road and Sarcee Trail, and the bus will return by 7:00 pm.
Charles Pratt introduced Tanya Koshowski, Executive Director of Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids. In his introduction, Charles noted that our Major Donations Committee proudly supports BB4K. Ms. Koshowski last presented to the club at our June 19th meeting when the committee presented a $20,000 cheque to BB4K.
Ms. Koshowski's presentation touched on the problem of hunger in Calgary's schools, how BB4K works to solve this problem and BB4K's vision for the future. She began by telling the story of nine-year-old Kayla and her younger brother Brad, who told her teacher that they were hungry as there was no food at home. Fortunately, BB4K was already active in her school, and her teacher was quickly able to enroll Kayla and Brad in the program. In another school, Sarah was found eating pure sugar from a plastic bag because there was no other food in her house. These are just two of many surprising stories arising in an affluent, modern city where BB4K has seen dramatic growth in the demand for its services.
Four years ago, BB4K provided lunches for 2500 hungry children in Calgary schools. That it now provides more than 5000 lunches daily in 228 Calgary schools shows how hunger is a serious and growing problem in our city. BBRK can provide this large volume of lunches at an average cost of $2.00 per lunch because of its strong partnerships with community groups, including our club, and a dedicated team of 650 volunteers, some of whom work out of BB4K's dedicated kitchen in downtown Calgary. It accomplishes all of this with an annual budget of just $2 million.
Ms. Koshowski concluded her presentation by sharing the BB4K vision for the future that sees the community working together to ensure no children go hungry. She told us the previous NDP government had established a budget of $15.4 million to provide nutritious lunches to students in 225 schools across the province, which represents the same size of the population that BB4K serves on its $2 million budget. The current government has allocated $3 million to establish a pilot project to feed hungry children across the province based on a model of community volunteerism. BB4K has submitted a proposal to the government of Alberta to extend the BB4K model to schools in four districts. BB4K believes it has the experience, being the only community-based free lunch program anywhere in Canada, to extend its model across the province. Such an initiative would build naturally on its vision, where the community ensures that no child is prevented by hunger from achieving his or her full potential.
After an informative question and answer session, Kurt Kowalchuck thanked our speaker for her presentation.
COG Staff - February 4th, 2020
Editor
Craig Henderson
Photography
Ralph Lundberg
Rotary Club of Calgary - Chartered April 1914 as Club #949
Suite 305, 105-12 Avenue SE, Calgary, Alberta, T2G 1A1
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