The Chippewa Valley After Hours Rotary Club is conducting its third annual Thanksgiving Dinner Drive this week to put a traditional Thanksgiving meal on the table of local families in need.
After providing a meal to 19 families in its inaugural effort in 2016 and 31 families last year, the club has expanded the program to include 34 families (183 people) this year.
This past June, the Rotary Club partnered with the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram and title sponsor PESI to host Taste of the Valley for the third time at Phoenix Park. Funds raised at that event were earmarked to provide hunger assistance in the Chippewa Valley. To date, the Rotary Club’s Thanksgiving Dinner Drive is the largest recipient of those funds.
“Food insecurity is unfortunately a daily issue for many in our community and families are not able to celebrate the holiday with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner,” said Rotary Club president Melissa Maxwell in a press release. “Thanks to our fundraising efforts at Taste of the Valley with our event partners PESI and Leader-Telegram, we are able to alleviate hunger on a day that so many take for granted.”
Club members gathered Tuesday evening at the Lake Hallie Eagles Club to assemble the meals for the families. Deliveries were scheduled to take place later that evening and this morning (Wednesday). The meals will include turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberries, rolls, and pie.
Eau Claire-based PESI is a non-profit company, formed in 1979, whose mission is to provide nationwide continuing education for professionals in a wide variety of fields.
Rotary is a service organization made up of more than 1.2 million individuals united worldwide to provide humanitarian aid and help build goodwill in the world. While Rotary’s global mission is to fight to end polio, the purpose of the Chippewa Valley After Hours Rotary Club is to eradicate hunger.
The After Hours Rotary Club meets twice a month, at 7 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays, at the Lake Hallie Eagles Club, 2588 Highway 53. Further information about the club is available at www.cvafterhours.com.
Plans for the 2019 Taste of the Valley are underway, with the date and details to be announced in the coming weeks.