The Ken
1/23/2023
Director: Ed
Finemaster: Gary Roberts
Table attendance/Split club: Ed
Ken writer: Cameron Kukla
Invocation: Larry Coon
Bringing in our second meeting of 2023, Larry Coon made a bell sound to replace the rotary meeting bell and Stephen Blass lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance at 12:20pm. Our guests were: Jessica Nowak - Executive Director of 'Kenmore Meals on Wheelz', Skylar Shurr from 'Hearts for the Homeless', and Matthew Taboni founder of 'Food Recovery Network.'
Announcements: A reminder for the Bandits Game coming up to get your money to Stephen Blass more details to follow on January 30th's meeting..
Also, there is a "Rotary Winter Social" on February 8th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at "Howling Rooster". Tickets for the social are $50 which includes the cost of dinner and is a dead line of February 3rd. Please RVSO to Stephen Blass for both events.
Kenmore Rotary presented an award of $10,000 to, "Hearts for the Homeless". Skylar gave us a huge thank you and let us know the funds would be used for a freezer and a deli-slicer to provide more meals to the homeless.
The only fines offered for the meeting was $1 for any comments related to the bills game and the meeting was very quite.
Our speaker was Matthew Taboni from the National organization, 'Food Recovery Network'. Matt is a UB student, working on their Law degree and works with Roteract. Matt helped to found and form the UB chapter of this organization in Nov of 2020. Currently they utilize the two dinning halls at UB to recover 8 times a week totaling 100 pounds of food a night. Since their inception, Matt has helped to: Recover 16,760 lbs of food, feed over 14,000 people, and offer 1054 volunteer hours. They collaborate with 15 student organizations, 8 nonprofits, 8 other community organizations, and are the test pilot for "Project Dash" with Door Dash. Door dash would offer free delivery services to get the produce and food to nonprofits around the area. On average they have 6-12 volunteer positions open during a semester.
Thank you Matt for helping our students and community!
A final note: Our fearless president is in good health and will be able to bring the bell for next week so Larry can save his singing voice.
Contact information:
Matthew Taboni - mdtaboni@buffalo.edu
Fines, ace of spades and split club with resume next week.