Rotary 2018-09-05 (Sep 05, 2018)

Meeting: September 4th 2018

Guests: Ann Northwood

Students:

Dorien Abbekeik from the Netherlands
Ayu Fujiwara from Japan
Juliana Motta from Columbia
Autumn (rebound from Mexico)

Visiting Rotarians: None

Announcements:

You can meet the visitors from New Zealand at the Yacht Club next Tuesday. Contact Gill 6-8 $25 for dinner tickets
Barney let us know that the Coffee portal is up and running on our web site.
The Downtown Rotary club is organizing RESP setup for low income families. They are partnering with VIU and have applied for $5000 district community grant. They will help families to fill out paperwork to get families started saving for their childrens education. It will be held September 22nd at Park Avenue or Fairview school.
Jim announced our next Beer and Burger will be at the White Spot Oct 30th (Tuesday). Please think about auction items
The 5 club tree planting will be held Sunday September 23rd at 1 PM in Beban Park. The City will dig holes and we will put the tree in and fill hole. Hopefully club members will donate 6 to 10 for each tree.
Paul told us that the recent student exchange night was very successful and raised about $4,000

Things to Think About:

Why do banks charge you a "non-sufficient funds fee" on money they already know you don't have?

Program

Our speaker last week was Peter Sinclair the CEO of Loaves and Fishes (where we volunteer). He has been an executive director for 7.5 years and a volunteer prior to that. He has a BSc of Commerce and a Masters of Divinity.

     Several years ago they realized that they could have the problem of too little food or of abundance. They choose abundance and have grown dramatically since then.  They started in a church basement and now operate a 6000 square foot warehouse! In 2008 they served 1 depot and now have 11. Originally they had no produce and now have unlimited produce available 6 days a week. At first, a person was handed a bag of food and now people have can shop for items themselves. When they started, you had to attend the depot but now mobility challenged folks can have home delivery.
     The key to this is food recovery and waste reduction at source (retail and wholesale). Local grocery outlets now send their unwanted items to L&F instead of the landfill. Once the items are picked up, they are sorted and food that is still viable goes to people and the remainder goes (in order) for animal feed, composting and renewable energy and only as a last resort, to the landfill.
     Today they process $4,000,000 worth of food and 50 non profits receive food for free from L&F.
     New plans include two new trucks and a gas powered cooler for warehouse.

Recent Events:
Community Family fun night with Parks & Rec. Country Grocer donated hotdogs, burgers and condiments for the 300 people served.

Rotary Exchange night to welcome our new in bound students and welcome home our rebound students.

The In-Bound students are:

Dorien Abbekeik from the Netherlands

Ayu Fujiwara from Japan

Juliana Motta from Columbia

The Re-bound students are:

Grace who was in Norway

Morgan who was in Denmark

Katie who was in Germany

Lena who was in Switzerland

Jenn who was in France

We also heard from Riley deRuiter who went on the Rotary Adventure in Human Rights (RAHR) to Winnipeg this summer. He was the only male with 23 other students - all ladies.

Jason Bradley (from the Downtown club) was the MC

Congratulations to Paul Geneau and the rest of the committee who pulled of this event and to all the students who once again proved --- the program is priceless, the experience is what you make it and how you come home proud to be Canadian, so much more confident and with so many 'special' new friends.