Posted by Peggy Strom on Oct 28, 2019
Today's meeting started with a new tradition - our first "Vocational Minute" by Kent Peterson.  This great idea from Bill Klumpp will give us all a chance to get to know each other a little better.  Kent gave a brief historical review of his background in pharmacy, an industry that has changed significantly during his years of involvement.   Our speaker today was Jonathan Turner, who talked with us about "The Sheridan Story", which is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting childhood hunger in the Twin Cities.  As he noted, "food is a distribution problem, not a supply problem" for the most part.  100,000 kids in the Twin Cities have "food insecurity" and teachers began noticing that kids were hoarding food from school lunches on Friday, to take home for the weekend.  The Sheridan program helps address this issue by providing food bags that can be taken home at the end of each school week.  Over 90% of their food is purchased through organizations such as Second Harvest, and volunteers help by packing the bags to be delivered to schools.  Schools are chosen to participate based on need and on getting support from groups and individuals in the community.  No schools in the MV District are currently participating because our local Ralph Reeder Food Shelf has a similar program in our area.