A $250 grant from Rotary District 5610 turned into more than $1,500 worth of food for Brookings-area families this holiday season.
The grants were offered to clubs throughout the district specifically to address food insecurity efforts in local communities. The Brookings Rotary Club decided to apply, offering to match the grant amount from the clubs budget, with proceeds benefiting Feeding Brookings at Ascension Lutheran Church.
So when President Michael Gonda was informed his club was awarded $250, the amount available for Feeding Brookings was now at $500 with the club match.
But the project was just picking up steam. Members of Alpha Zeta Honors Fraternity in the Animal Sciences Department at SDSU, where Gonda is a professor, hosted a bake sale on Nov. 29, with donated goodies from Rotarians and the students themselves. That project netted another $348.16. The project was now resembling a stone soup story, now up to $848.16.
Special collections were held during regular club meetings in November and Rotarians were generous, adding another $550, and to cap it off, the proceeds from the monthly Thirsty Thursday social event hosted by the Brookings Rotary Club garnered another $170. What began as a $250 grant had grown to $1,568.16.
Local Rotarians wanted to do even more, so on Dec. 14,10 Rotarians worked with other volunteers at Ascension Lutheran, packing up the boxes of food and distributing them to families needing assistance. It is estimated by Feeding Brookings volunteers that 157 local families were helped that week by the Rotary contributions.
This was a real community effort, said Gonda, who presented the check to Feedings Brookings coordinators. We were able to take a grant from our district and increase the amount more than six-fold. Through the creativity, generosity and Service Above Self of our members as well as a group of community-minded college students, more than 150 local families received a welcomed addition to their pantries.
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