One of our themes for the year has been to have projects that impact food insecurity. On that note, seven of our members and four spouses or friends worked at Second Harvest Food Bank on March 25. Second Harvest serves as a Food Bank that makes food available to Food Shelves around Minnesota. During our introduction to Second Harvest, the coordinator told us that One in Five Minnesotans face food insecurity on a daily basis! Other events that our club has participated in include Ralph Reeder Food Shelf, Every Meal, and Feed My Starving Children. On April 26, we will again be packing meals for Feed My Starving Children at Incarnation Church.
At our event on March 25, we sorted potatoes from 2000 lb containers into 40 lb bags that food shelves use to distribute potatoes to their clients. We also packed apples and oats. There were other groups, as well as our Rotary Club. Although, not glamorous work, participants get the feeling that they are doing important work in the fight against hunger. After two hours, we had packed over 17,000 lbs of food and, in Second Harvest’s calculations, that equates to 16,203 meals! Definitely something to be proud of. Take a look at the pictures below to see some of the happy members and other helpers.
One of our themes for the year has been to have projects that impact food insecurity. On that note, seven of our members and four spouses or friends worked at Second Harvest Food Bank on March 25. Second Harvest serves as a Food Bank that makes food available to Food Shelves around Minnesota. During our introduction to Second Harvest, the coordinator told us that One in Five Minnesotans face food insecurity on a daily basis!
At our event on March 25, we sorted potatoes from 2000 lb containers into 40 lb bags that food shelves use to distribute potatoes to their clients. We also packed apples and oats. There were other groups, as well as our Rotary Club. Although, not glamorous work, participants get the feeling that they are doing important work in the fight against hunger. After two hours, we had packed over 17,000 lbs of food and, in Second Harvest’s calculations, that equates to 16,203 meals! Definitely something to be proud of. Take a look at the pictures below to see some of the happy members and other helpers.
Today's meeting involved a site visit to the new Genesis Event Center in Arden Hills. Our host was owner Rose Kukwa, formerly of Cameroon Africa. Genesis occupies the 11,000 sq. ft. building which formerly housed a Bingo operation across from Flaherty's Arden Bowl. It is open for business and has begun hosting weddings and other gatherings, although there is still some construction underway to correct problems with the original design. It will include a cafe, expected to open this spring. Ms. Kukwa gave us some insight into her background. Her father died when she was only 10 years old, leaving her widowed mother to care for 7 children. Rose eventually was able to obtain a visa and came to the United States. She first stayed with relatives in Michigan, but she moved to Minnesota in 2013. MN has a relatively large population of immigrants from Cameroon, which made the transition easier for her. This is a lovely space and will hopefully be a great success.
Frank Mabley and his wife Jane provided a very interesting presentation today about a Rotary trip they joined in January 2025 sponsored by the organization Sustainable Cambodia. This is a Rotarian-led nonprofit organization that helps Cambodian families create a sustainable quality of life with safe water and sanitation, sustainable incomes, healthy food, and quality education for their children. Village families build schools, install wells, learn alternative agriculture, and learn to manage community projects. They then “pass-on” what they have learned by helping neighboring villages. Through this model, they develop the resources needed to rebuild their future in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide which killed 25% of the population during the mid-1970's. Shockingly, there are still 32 million land mines in place which continue to have the possibility of inflicting great harm. They have come up with a unique solution: Giant rats are imported from Africa and trained to detect mines using their strong sense of smell. These "Hero Rats" can also detect Tuberculosis in humans. The Mableys spoke highly of their trip, which also included a visit to Angkor Wat - the world's largest religious monument and a World Heritage Site. It also served as the former capital of the Khmer empire but was later converted to a Buddhist temple.
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