Current president of the Rotary Club of Los Alamos James Wernicke, right, and Alyssa Sun, current president of the Los Alamos High School Rotary Interact Club, during the 2023 meal packing event for Meals of Hope. At the 2022 event, More than 100 community members of all ages volunteered and by mid-afternoon 35,328 servings of food were assembled and packed into boxes that were sealed, stacked and plastic-wrapped ready for pick-up by The Food Depot in Santa Fe. The food is distributed to food pantries throughout the area including LA Cares in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
With Thanksgiving fast-approaching, if you are moved to participate in an activity that will provide 25,000 pre-packaged individual meals for distribution by The Food Depot to families in need throughout Northern New Mexico, Rotary Club of Los Alamos president is seeking some 30 to 60 volunteers for Saturday, Nov. 22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This is not the first year Rotarians have partnered with The Food Depot for the Meals of Hope event, which is held at Crossroads Bible Church at 97 East Road in Los Alamos.
“We have 25,000 meals to pack in 6 hours. We typically have up to 5-7 assembly lines with 6-8 volunteers in each, which means that in addition to Rotarians and Interact Club members, we need many more volunteers from the community to succeed in our mission,” Wernicke said. “To give you an idea of the pace, there’s 4 meals per package, and with 25,000 meals to pack in 6 hours, that’s a little over 1000 packages/hour. Spread over 5-7 assembly lines, that’s 3-4 packages per minute per group.”
Volunteers will open large boxes of ingredients and distribute them to the lines where they are measured, bagged, sealed and boxed up. Check out the Rotary Club’s YouTube video on the event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5mihjm3zrA
“It’s a smooth operation once it gets going, but we really need people. Sign up has been slow and we need people to commit some time. Past participants have enjoyed meeting other community members and some have brought friends and family to help out,” Wernicke said.
To volunteer, use the QR code below or https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpmhTMcSEvScTmDa7RrbHQwJNYlTFiM04aTTkrXJCjifvFAA/viewform
You may also call or email Maire O’Neill, (505) 412-8739, maire@losalamosreporter.com.
Shifts are 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The cost for the Rotary Club for the meal ingredients is $8,000, Wernicke said. The Club has $5,000 budgeted for that and needs donations from the community to help them cover the remaining $3,000.
“Every donation counts. A dollar will pay for three full, nutritious meals. If you can’t join in the Meals of Hope event itself, please consider stopping to put a donation in the box provided,” he said.
The fundraiser is at https://losalamosgives.org/story/mealsofhope and you can donate via the QR code below.
Checks may also be mailed to Rotary Club of Los Alamos P.O. Box 988, Los Alamos, NM 87544. Donations are tax-deductible.
