1st Annual Family Barbecue & Gumbo Festival to End Hunger
In my role as a leader in an international humanitarian and service organization with more than 34,000 clubs and 1.3 million members worldwide, all dedicated to eradicating polio on the planet, I thought our club, during my presidency, should commit to the more modest but still ambitious goal of ending hunger in the Winthrop Lakes Region.
As of this writing, 1 in 5 children in Maine goes to bed hungry every night. At the same time, we import more food per capita than any other state in the contiguous 48. I find this preposterous. How can it be that a state with such an agricultural heritage, a state that once was the bread basket for the entire country, a state that fed all the soldiers in the Civil War, finds itself importing so much food while allowing too many of its children to go to bed hungry each night? Food is life. As an organic farmer committed to feeding people and as a volunteer chef and Secretary of the Winthrop Hot Meal Kitchen, I look hunger in the face almost every day. There is simply no reason for it. With so much fertile soil and so many talented, hard-working people who know how to grow things, we should be able to feed every person in our state and still have enough food to export all the way down the nation’s coast, just like we used to do. Sometimes, you have to go back in order to go forward. And so, to raise awareness of this vital issue, while also raising funds to support charitable efforts and programs that address hunger in our region, we are organizing the 1st Annual Family Barbecue and Gumbo Festival to End Hunger on Saturday, August 18 at 16:30 (4:30PM) Rambler Football Field Winthrop |
Please Save the Date Our event will follow the 25th Annual Winthrop Sidewalk Art Show, so we hope to benefit from the crowd that descends on our community to see and buy art each year. We’ll prepare great food—ribs, pulled pork, chicken & sausage gumbo, beans, collards, cornbread, grilled veggies, farm-fresh salads, coleslaws and more—and provide fun for the whole family. Because we want to raise as much money as possible—not only to deal with emergency food needs in our region, but also to raise funds for a Winthrop Lakes Region Food Center, which might include the Winthrop Food Pantry; the Winthrop Hot Meal Kitchen, re-envisioned as a Community Café, a place where people can learn culinary arts in exchange for a nutritious meal prepared with locally produced foods served restaurant-style; and a year-round sustainable growing facility where we can teach families of any means how to raise and process their own food—we humbly ask you to join us at this first-ever, one-of-a-kind event. In 1948, when the Rotary Club of the Winthrop Area charter was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Augusta, one of the first projects the Club undertook was to purchase the mobile van unit for the Winthrop Food Pantry, which currently resides on High Street and feeds up to 85 families a month. With our renewed commitment to end hunger in the region, we’re simply going back to our roots. Please come with us. Please contact us if you have any comments or questions about this event, would like to donate, co-sponsor or volunteer some time. Thank you. Take care of your blessings. Craig Hickman, President, 2012-2013 |
A Giant Thank you to our Featuring Sponsor
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How to get there...
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Volunteer shirts (left) will be worn by all those who are helping make things happen at the Festival. Special thanks to them and to our friends at DR Designs for the quality work and special service.
Visit them at http://drdesignsonline.com/ |
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