So the month has changed from March to April, we have just had our Easter holiday with all the promise of spring and summer to come. We have a new Rotary monthly theme and a new Programs director for the quarter, Katha Danz. The program today brings back a charity which is very much in the hearts of Rotarians, "Rise Against Hunger". Katha introduced their Community Engagement Manager for Sacramento, and our Club’s good friend, Jim Quinney. She said that Jim has been married to his high school sweetheart, Amy, for 44 years and they have two girls, one in California and one in South Carolina. Jim retired from the insurance industry six years ago and since then has been involved with a variety of global and local outreach programs. He is a member of the St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Rocklin and a proud member of the Rotary Greater Sacramento Passport One Club.

Jim said how much he has appreciated our Club’s financial support of “Rise Against Hunger” and the “hands on” work we have done 2-3 times in packaging food packets at their warehouse. He mentioned that, though, they are known for their meals that they provide all around the world when crises strike and people are in immediate threat of starvation, their program is designed for much more than that. It is to stabilize food insecurity and then go beyond that with sustainability and even growing into the ability to sell food products to others. A recent example is a project in which "Rise Against Hunger" is involved - in the country of Mali, Africa.

 

Above and below shows slides about the project in Mali, a country which has been devastated by terror and civil war, political crisis and climate change. A large part of the effort there has been empowering women by education and land ownership.

So upper left shows the educational sessions and numbers of women and men involved in the hunger program in Mali.

(lower slide) shows what was accomplished and some testimonies of those helped.