President –elect Jeanne Shipe rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Chuck Ehninger gave a very nice invocation.
P-E Jeanne began the meeting having the members recite the Five-way Test with the fifth question, “Is it Fun?” We recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S.
GUESTS:
Gail Micca, almost a member; and David Haight, guest of Al Lewis.
P-E Jeanne showed pictures of last week’s meeting, Snack Packing at Northwestern, and the Jan 25th Thursday evening meeting with Gwenn & Gary.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
INDUCTION OF NEW MEMBER:
Gail Micca has been inducted as an Active member of the AWRC. Chuck Ehninger led the induction ceremony with Jeanne Shipe assisting.
FOUNDATION GALA MARCH 17TH:
AWRC is supporting the annual Foundation Gala fundraiser with a basket of cheer. Members are asked to donate a bottle or two as we have in the past. Pres. Mike will take custody of bottles starting Feb. 7th here at the meeting.
AWRC TEE SHIRTS:
Gail Micca will have our stuff here on Feb 7th.
DINING OUT:
The next Dining Out will be a “German Night” on February 22nd at the Stoney Run Inn. A menu is available. Please sign up by February 16th.
SCHEDULE:
President Mike announces upcoming events at our meetings and a list of them appears on our website. A list of the appropriate contact information appears each week in the A-W bulletin.
THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
Feb. 8th at the Holiday Inn starting at 5:30 P.M.
MEMBERSHIP PLANS:
Herb Klotz is holding planning meetings after our Feb 7th and Feb 8th regular meetings. A full club effort for the next 5 months is needed to grow our membership. Volunteers are needed to serve on the committee.
NEXT WEEK:
Our Greeter will be Ralph Witcher and the program is Gail Micca giving her Classification Talk.
P-E Jeanne introduced S-A-A Mitch Huston to conduct the drawings and collect some voluntary fines.
The door prize was won by Ginny Sandoval.
The $21 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Joe Goll‘s ticket being drawn. Lots of white marbles remain.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Al Lewis is happy to finally have gotten over the Flu.
Amir Famili is very happy to announce that as of Friday he is officially retired from Air Products.
Ernie Boll is just plain happy.
Dale Heffner is happy to be celebrating one year since he got his new hip.
Wendy Weaver says “Go Eagles” and announced that she has bought a new home in the Villages in Florida.
More good news is that Wendy’s niece, Heather, now is holding a pen and learning to write again.
Chuck Ehninger is now 5 years clear of his esophageal cancer. And he leaves for Florida soon.
Ginny Sandoval says “Yeah, Chuck.” And she is happy to have Herb Klotz and Chris Blechschmidt back safely from Africa. And Ginny is just happy, too.
Jeanne Shipe is happy for Herb and Chris, says “Go Eagles” and after 3 months she finally has a new garage door.
Chris is happy to be back too. He and his Wife and Daughter went to Sierra Leone. It was a great trip, and “Go Eagles.”
Ronnee Klotz says “Fly Eagles, Fly” and also is happy to have Herb back home. And she is happy that her grandson came in 6th in the pinewood derby.
Herb Klotz is happy to be back and he and Chris will be our Feb 14th program.
Gail Micca is happy for our African travelers, and says “Go Eagles.”
Mitch Huston says he really is a Giants fan.
PROGRAM:
The program today was Jessica Dokachev, Director Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley & NE PA. Jessica also had Meredith Mecca, their Nutritionist with her. Jessica has been the Director since March of 2017 and was their Operations Manager before that.
Second Harvest Distributes 6,230,778 meals to people struggling with hunger. Counties served by Second Harvest: carbon, lehigh, Monroe, northampton, pike, and wayne.
In the area served by Second Harvest Food Bank:
One in ten people struggle with hunger.
One in six Children struggle with hunger
Partners:
With the support of our generous partners, the Feeding America network is meeting the needs of families across the country and helping them find the strength to move forward and flourish. Learn More ›
Feeding America is proud to be rated so highly by esteemed watchdog organizations like the Better Business Bureau and Charity Navigator.
They serve about 55,000 people each month. They work with local food pantries and service groups to have the food distributed. And we will be working with them as we go forward with our Snack Pack program at Parkland SD. They gave out 9.1 million pounds of food last year -- essentially to our neighbors. About one-third is fresh produce.
Jessica said that, depending on the school district, anywhere from 10% to 90% of the children rely on donated food for breakfast and lunch each day. Their busy season is in the Summer when school is out. This leads to long lines at the food pantries.
They have fundraisers and get grants to keep things going. Money donations are better than cans and boxes, since they get better prices. One service that they provide is showing clients how to prepare and cook some items that are uncommon. And they take care that the foods are cultural appropriate and accepted in local religions.
Jessica said that Gerbers (Nestles) is a strong partner for them. She notes that there are fewer clients now than 10 years ago. But each client has greater needs today.
Jessica answered a number of questions before receiving our thanks and applause.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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