Feeding the hungry: Athens Rotary aids Full Tummy Project
Published 6:45 am Wednesday, July 1, 2020
- Athens Rotary Club gave funds to Limestone County Schools and Athens City Schools Tuesday to help with the Full Tummy Project at the school systems this summer. From left are Athens Rotary Club Service Chairperson Chris Hamilton, Emily Clem of Empty Bowls, Allison Usery of Limestone County Schools, Athens Rotary Club President John Wayne King, Serena Owsley of Athens City Schools and Regina Kyle of The Full Tummy Project.
The Athens Rotary Club is helping to provide food for local children in need through grant funds from Rotary International and Rotary District 6860.
The funds are used to help the Full Tummy Project, a local initiative to fight childhood hunger. It provides meals, lunch and snacks, to students in need.
“I think this is a wonderful example of how collaboration among various groups can lead to wonderful results,” said Chris Hamilton, service chairperson for Athens Rotary Club. “Typically, we provide approximately 650 bags of food for Athens City School students and around 1,250 for Limestone County students.”
Rotary contributes about $4,000 to Limestone County students and about $4,000 Athens City students each year. For Full Tummy Project, the club normally purchases food to be sent home with the students — macaroni and cheese, ravioli, peanut butter crackers and fruit cups, for example.
Food is ordered in bulk for the county schools system in the fall and spring. The food is placed in individual bags at Birdie Thornton and Rotarians then pick up and deliver the bags to the system, which in turn distributes the items to the students.
“This year, due to COVID-19, the distribution of food during the spring semester was disrupted,” Hamilton said. “Therefore, Rotary presented a check to the Limestone County School System to be used to purchase food for their summer programs.” On Tuesday, the system received $2,564 from their allocated funds.
Each December, food is ordered in bulk for the city schools and placed in individual bags by Rotarians during a weekly meeting. Last year, Athens Rotary Club packed 6,300 individual food items and delivered them to city schools, according to Hamilton. On Tuesday, Athens City Schools received $760 from their allocated funds to be used for their summer programs.
In addition to purchases funded by Rotary, the Athens club also orders, picks up and delivers similar food items for Empty Bowls Project. Last year Empty Bowls contributed more than $2,300 to purchase food for local students who may be at risk for hunger.
