The Rotary Club of West Palm Beach and the Palm Beach County Food Bank are inviting local organizations, businesses and community groups to become partners in the first-ever Feed Palm Beach County Day on Saturday, April 12.
The focus of the event, to be held at Gaines Park at 1501 N. Australian Ave. in West Palm Beach, is to assemble 50,000 meals in one day. The meals will be distributed to the hungry by the Palm Beach County Food Bank through nearly 100 local nonprofit organizations.
The effort is on now to recruit at least 150 volunteers and to raise $26,000 needed to purchase the food for the meals. Sponsorship levels range from $25 for individuals to $1,500 for groups and organizations wishing to sponsor a table at the event and bring volunteers to assemble the meals.
“With more than 57 percent of Palm Beach County school children qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches, and nearly 180,000 adults in our county at or below federal poverty guidelines, we know there is a great need to provide food to the hungry in our community,” said West Palm Beach Rotary Club member Tony Lofaso, organizer of Feed Palm Beach County Day.
Palm Beach County Food Bank Executive Director Perry Borman said this is just the type of grassroots effort that is needed to continue to focus on ways to eradicate hunger in Palm Beach County.
“It is difficult to look for a job as an adult or to focus on your studies at school if you don’t know where your next meal is coming from,” Borman said.
For more information about how to become involved, contact Lofaso at (561) 689-6775 or tonylofaso@bellsouth.net.
