Rotary Clubs in Cabarrus County are organizing a community-wide event to pack 100,000 meals. Volunteers are still needed.
The event, Rotary Fights Hunger, will be from 9 a.m to 12:15 p.m. this Saturday at the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center.
Want to be part of something that is bigger than yourself and will help make a lasting impact in the county?
The Rotary Clubs in Cabarrus County are teaming up to host Rotary Fights Hunger, a community-wide event to pack 100,000 meals for local families facing food insecurity.
The event will take place from 9 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. this Saturday (May 3) at the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center. The clubs are partnering with the nonprofit organization Lifeline Christian Mission (specifically its Charlotte centre, which is located inside Gibson Mill), which works to solve problems faced by vulnerable communities around the world.
The goal is to have at least 350 volunteers, who work in teams with each person having a specific role. As of Tuesday afternoon, roughly 270 people have already signed up, according to Amy Gough, who is part of the Rotary for Hunger leadership team.
“Rotary is all about service above self,” Gough told The Cabarrus Compass. “We are here to be a support system for our community, and so this (meal-packing event) is just one of the ways we are doing it this year.”
The meal-packing event, which is open to everyone with a commitment to serving others, allows the clubs to address a major need in the community: food insecurity.
According to data from Feeding America, roughly 12 percent of people in Cabarrus County in 2022 were food insecure, which is defined by United States Department of Agriculture as “the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life.”
This is certainly one of the bigger events that Lifeline Charlotte has taken part in since it opened in January 2022, according to its director Hollie Gregory, who is also a member of the Full Circle Club.
“I was super excited,” Gregory said when the Rotary Clubs decided to host an event of this magnitude, “because I knew that it would be people that may not normally walk into the doors at Lifeline Charlotte.”
A big focus for Lifeline Charlotte, which has packaged over 1.3 million nutritious, shelf-stable meals and locally distributed over 500,000 meals, is bringing the community together and so Rotary Fights Hunger represents another great opportunity for the organization to do just that.
The event will also be a “fantastic launching pad” for the Million Meals Tour in October, where Lifeline Charlotte is preparing to bring in 2,400 volunteers to pack 500,000 meals over a two-day period at the Atrium Ballpark in Kannapolis.
Volunteers for Rotary Fights Hunger must be at least 3 years old as of May 1, and children ages 3-10 must serve with a parent. Volunteers under 18 must also have a waiver signed by a parent on file to participate.
The Rotary Clubs taking part in the meal-packing event include:
Afton Sunset Rotary Club
Cabarrus County Rotary Club
Concord Rotary Club
Full Circle Club
Harrisburg Rotary Club
Kannapolis Rotary Club
People interested in helping can sign up here. For questions about the event, people can email Rotarycabco@gmail.com.