President Brian Hayes welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer.

 

President Hayes had the following announcements:

 

 

Other announcements included:

 

Kim Senft-Paras shared this week’s i50^th Anniversary Tidbits on our theme of Maternal and child health

 

 

 

 

 

Birth Kits distributed to some expectant mothers included: cord clamp, cotton wool 450g, sanitary pad, surgical gloves, razor blade, scalpel blade, mucus extractor, delivery mat and chloxy-G gel.

 

Kim asked everyone to be ready to share next week, what our club has done in the area or bring ideas for how we can do more.

 

 

 

Pat Beckel was our Sergeant of Arms today. He commented on the nice facility we get to spend. He mentioned for every $1 spent at a local business, $4 goes back into community.

 

Pat introduced our visitors today: Connie Hatch from Strongsville, Nikki Gates with Double Jay Construction, and Rick Hartley, all visiting to learn more about our club.

 

Happy Bucks were given for:

 

 

 

James said the Dayton Foodbank provides hunger relief for the Miami Valley, serving Montgomery, Greene, and Preble counties. They are part of the Feeding America network, which has 200+ food banks in the country. They are The Foodbank, Inc. and have been in business over 40 years. They started as part of Red Cross.

 

 

 

James said their facility is located at the Rte 35/ Rte 75 interchange, where they have been since 2013. When they started, they distributed around 4 million pounds of food annually, and now serve 18-20 million pounds of food annually. It is very common to see 600 cars come through twice a week, serving 1,000 households per day. They also do 30 mobile pantries/month and work with over 100 local partners to provide food for hunger relief.

 

James is the urban garden manager, the only outdoor employee of The Foodbank. The space started as a vacant parking lot of the former Reynolds and Reynolds property. 3 acres of asphalt were cleared, and although they looked at other options for use of the area, decided to develop it into a garden.

 

 

In 2017 they ripped out the asphalt, and received a water quality grant to use gravel instead of asphalt. Then constructed cinderblock raised beds with an automated drip irrigation system. They currently grow 8,000 pounds of food in 40 beds. And survey their clients to grow what they want - mostly tomatoes, green beans, and peppers.

 

They also have an orchard. They are located on an old industrial site with ground pollution, so they had to go above ground due to ground contamination. Their orchard is unique because it is mobile - they can move the trees around. They plant dwarf varieties and all trees are doing well.

 

 

In 2019 they started compost facility. They rescue food that is near it’s sell date from grocery stores. They re-distribute what they can to partners and then compost the spoilage. There is less than 1% spoilage in food they take in, and use lots of compost since they are a chemical free garden.The compost facility was a partnership with Montgomery County, Kroger, and the EPA. It is considered a Class 2 compost facility since they bring product in and distribute. They are the food bank in country with Class 2 compost facility. 80% of the compost material is turned into a useable product for their use.

 

Use re-purposed shipping container to collect the spoilage. It then gets chopped, blended, and aerated and about 2-3 weeks later, it is compost. The project is then stored in storage bays to further cure another month or so. They turn it over 1/week and use a Trommel screener to sift out the large pieces.

 

 

A hydroponic greenhouse just opened up at their facility too. Local resident showed up and asked what they needed next. James mentioned a hydroponic greenhouse, and the man came back a few days later and offered to help finance it. The greenhouse was dedicated to his wife who loved gardens.

 

The garden has produced 12,000 heads of lettuce so far, should easily get up to producing 100,000 heads per year. It is harvested in the morning and that afternoon it goes out - can’t get much fresher than that.

 

They are working to expand the facility so more construction will be going on for awhile.

 

James said they are looking for volunteers. Pre-pandemic, they had around 7,000-10,000 volunteers, but that number dropped off significantly.

 

They generate enough compost for their use and do give away compost to partner organizations, too. They also have a program where you can pick up a 5 gallon bucket to fill up at home and bring back. The long term plan is for commercial garden operations, but not yet≥

 

Many of their partners are religious affiliates, and also With Gods Grace, St. Vincent de Paul, Dayton Schools, Miami Valley Meals, and more

 

Through members of the Ohio Association of Food Banks, all 88 counties are covered.

 

The American Institute of Bakers regulates their food safety.   

 

 

     

 

President Hayes thanked James for the great work and announced  next week’s Board Meeting will be on Monday at 5:30 pm via Zoom. Watch for a link in your e-mail.

 

Our speakers next week will be Carol Hughes and Frank Scott from the District as we recognize our Paul Harris recipients.

 

President Hayes led the group in reciting the 4-way Test and wished everyone a great week.