Chips May 11th, 2015

Caprice had two guests, Nicole Miller and Bob Mills

 

Our Speaker was Alex Bornjteon, Chief Operating Officer of The Vermont Food bank

 

Rachel Fried was fined for being featured in Rutland Herald

Lou bragged for Nick's generosity with Shelter Box contribution.

Caprice bragged for the work done by 130 volunteers at the Brandon Parent Child Center. They really helped w/ the outside and landscaping.

Nick bragged about his daughter's involvement with Farm to Ballet. Helping community farmers including RAFFL.

Mike bragged about his young soccer players he coaches and their success in winning a soccer tournament the prior weekend. Kwame gave the team a shout out on the radio which was cool, too.

Joyce said she was very lucky to spend Mother's Day with her mom and mother in law.

Dick said he has a wonderful wife and usually gets her Belgium Chocolate for Mother's Day, but bought her a home this year instead.

Krista bragged about raffle sales and car show and also that she received a birth certificate in the mail recently for a child that her husband, Chad, had she wasn't aware of....a Cabbage Patch Doll. Also bragged that she and Chad have been hitched for 5 years now.

Tom thanked Rotarians for coming out on Saturday and said he was really happy he was able to get those fast cars and Rotarians together for one "racy" pic! Also, June 14th is National Rail Society Convention in Rutland.

Peter said his future daughter in law is graduating with a Doctorate of Physical Therapy soon and his daughter is also graduating college soon.

Traci bragged for Mike Coppinger's coaching efforts and thinks he has done a great job. Her daughter plays for Mike.

Joan bragged for area high school kids who received the scholarships recently and was honored to be able to help in the process. Also, Jimmy jr. hit his first hole in one and Joan was there!

 

I made an announcement about trying to raise monies to donate to Shelter Box USA. I do not have any expectations for people to donate, but I think it is a very worthy cause and I will be leading a fundraising effort. Please see me. If we could raise a $1,000, we could buy another box! (about $20 a person to get there)

Kevin, next Thursday @ 5:30, there will be a meeting at his office for Admin committee.

Jeff G- announced the Spring Fling at NW School

Will- completed the first shift of the Boys N Girls Club volunteer efforts, but still need more people to sign up for this or Will is going to be ruining a lot of kids days via Foosball

Joan only has 5 more Rotary meetings before changing of the gavel ceremony. She said that Jay Sab. has offered the new Palms at Prospect Bay for a venue for the event if we want it there.

 

Small pot $28, large $172  Joyce won and donated money to the Shelter Box fundraiser! Thank you very much!

 

Alex, COO of Vt Food bank. This is a statewide organization that partners with 225 other groups in the state. They distribute over 10 million pounds of food a year, 2 million of those pounds being produce and fresh veggies. A lot of what they distribute is actually locally grown. They serve 1 of 4 Vermonters and as many as 1 in 3 in Rutland County. He said that Vermont has unique challenges that the residents face, i.e. lack of public transit in a lot of areas. 63% of people the food bank serves have to make a choice at the end of each month between paying the utility bill or buying food. Often times, they will choose the utility bill and go hungry. The average client comes to the food bank for help about 8x a year. They just opened a 24,000 sq ft facility in Rutland and will be adding a cooler that can store 4 trailer loads of food at this new facility. They bring fresh food to schools and allow the kids to pick out what they like and take it home for their families. They also participate in the Backpack Program, which will fill a school child's backpack up with healthy foods in a discrete manner and send them home with it over the weekend. The food bank tries very hard to use direct distribution when at all possible. This is essentially when they get food straight from the farmer. They waste less than 1% of the food they are given to distribute.