Children benefiting from Alpharetta's summer lunch program

North Atlanta Rotarians Joan McGowan, Nathan Aberson, Kathy Monacelli, Pat Thomas, Kent Gipson and Fred Monancelli work hard to complete their IOH project before dark!

LaGrange Rotarians

Dunwoody Rotarians Tina Philpot, Louise Barden and George Stewart selling hot dogs

Griffin Rotarian John Quinn is hoping there's plenty of anti-venom on hand!

Alpharetta Provides Summer Lunches

Volunteers from the Rotary Club of Alpharetta partnered with Coordinators from the Ed Isakson/Alpharetta Family YMCA to distribute lunches and engage with children from the Aspen Pointe Apartment complex. The summer lunch program is committed to feeding children who fall into the category of “food insecure,” and normally receive a free or reduced lunch during the school year. Rotarians will continue to volunteer every Wednesday at 11:45am until children return to school in August.

The program is wonderfully simple, and yet enormously impactful. According to No Kid Hungry campaign, “Food insecurity—the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food— exists in 17.2 million households in America, 3.9 million of them with children.” The Summer Lunch Program will strive to provide children in need in the Alpharetta community with guaranteed lunch five days a week.

Each weekday, the meals are prepared by MUST Ministries at Roswell United Methodist Church. The YMCA Summer Feeding Program Coordinator then transports the 80 to 120 meals to the Aspen Pointe apartment complex. Here, two to six volunteers distribute lunches to the children. This is also a time for volunteers from the Rotary Club of Alpharetta to interact with students in planned activities and games on the outside basketball court.

North Atlanta Partners with Interfaith Outreach Home

North Atlanta Rotarians reached out to the Interfaith Outreach Home (IOH) in the Chamblee/Doraville area, to find out how we could help and support them. Interfaith Outreach Home serves up to ten families at a time for up to two years each.IOH is an in-depth program providing safe and secure housing, many supportive resources, and time to transition (up to 2-years), while it requires mandatory saving and accountability from participants. The program provides guidance, multi-faceted life-skills trainings and mentors to formerly homeless families willing to participate in this very stringent program capable of breaking the cycle of homelessness and poverty. Graduate families of this program transition into stable lives, often including home ownership made possible by the mandatory savings component of the program.

So far, the club's support has included stepped in to provide the evening meal for the Life Skills Class participants and their families and "channeling" their Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn personalities to spruce up the yard and paint the picket fence and shed. The club's connections with IOH go back to the beginning of the home with builder Don Millen, a long time North Atlanta Rotary Club member and Past President, as well as with several other club members who have initiated club service projects over the years.

Happy New Year on the Fourth of July

Each year, the Rotary Club of LaGrange provides marshals on the 4^th of July for our Sweet Land of Liberty children’s parade. And, Dunwoody Rotarians sell hot dogs and share the Independence Day Celebrations at the City of Dunwoody's annual parade.

Snakes at a Rotary Meeting?

The Rotary Club of Griffin had a great program in June featuring Jason Clark from Southeastern Reptile Rescue. Jason and his family had their own series on Animal Planet, and Jason rescues snakes and alligators all over Georgia and the Southeast.Griffin Rotarian John Quinn was hoping that WellStar Spalding Regional Hospital had plenty of anti-venom on hand as he was an unwilling participant in the program!