ROTARY RESPONDS to Covid-19 FOOD CRISIS: Paul Mickiewicz & Keyanna Jones Make It Happen!
Rotary Club of Roselle Park participated in a project with 35 other Rotary Clubs in North Jersey to distribute 200,000 meals to food insecure individual or families. According to Rotary District 7574 (North Jersey) Governor Ray Freaney, “District 7475 has secured a $25,000 Disaster Response Grant along with money from the District Foundation, several District Clubs and private individuals and ordered 200,000 meals that will be distributed by clubs to food pantries throughout our nine county area. The food will be pre-packaged and boxed meals of Oatmeal, Mac & Cheese and Rice & Beans.”
Rotary Roselle-Roselle Park’s response was led by Club President Keyanna Jones and Past Club President Paul Mickiewicz, and made possible through a grant from the Rotary Foundation written by Rotarian Bob Zeglarski. The grant was originally intended for the club’s annual Rotary Youth Leadership initiative, but was redirected for food at the direction of Ms. Jones.
President Keyanna Jones said, “Paul Mickiewicz rented a truck to haul 11,000 meals packed in 50 boxes back to the Roselle-Roselle Park community where we will distribute it to The Roselle Board of Education, The Cynthia Johnson Civic Association and Roselle Cares 365. Since only two people from each club were allowed at the Madison staging area to pick up the food, I went along to help load the truck and get the food back to our community.”
Club Treasure Scott Wands met the truck in Roselle to load a few boxes of meals into his car for transport to First Baptist Church of Elizabeth where there is a food kitchen operated by the Cranford Presbyterian Church. Scott parents are longtime volunteers at that program.
For more stories about Rotary Roselle-Roselle Park’s work visit www.roselle-roselleparkrotary.org. JOIN OUR CAUSE!
Rotary is a network of 1.2 million in 35,000 clubs in 200 countries world-wide dedicated to doing good in the world. Its motto is SERVICE ABOVE SELF. See rotary.org.
To find out more about Rotary District 7475’s End Hunger Project see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU-XHIkETLs.