Rumor was that the lunch committee had scheduled a meeting with the caterer following our gathering. This might have contributed to the excellent beef tips and rice medley that was served for lunch. The vegetables were greeted with mixed reviews. Salad and brownies rounded out the meal.

As we finished eating, Art Bradbury and George Schoen led us in rousing rendition of the Welcome Song, somewhat recouping from the atrocious performance last week. Our speaker, a New Britain Rotarian himself, seemed to be impressed as he later said that our club is the best singing club that he has visited. Of course he also mentioned that we are the only club he's visited that sings, but that’s neither here nor there.

Sgt at Arms, Nick Cecere reported out the following :

    Ceil Collins was celebrating her 21st year in Rotary

    Bill Saunders paid for a better performance of the Welcome Song

    Wes Willett paid in hopes that his substitution duties as photographer, (there never having been an official transition), will be augmented with a working camera.

    Jim Fallon paid because he was happy to be back with us and for his wife Pat feeling better

    George Schoen paid for his new Toyota Camry

    Bob Woods is happy

    Jim Watts paid in hopes that everyone stands in the NFL

    Lowell Waldo paid to celebrate his second anniversary in the club and for leaving early

    George Agnelli paid for being late

    Jack Martin paid to leave early

    Marc Glass paid for his birthday, Eagles in 1st place, Giants and Cowboy losses

    Mo Moshovos paid for his niece, who qualified for the women's Pro Golf tour in 2018

    Jack Sayre paid for leaving early

    Ned Lynch paid for leaving early and the NFL standing

    Nate Quesnel paid for CC Sabathia being on the mound for game 5. Go Yanks!

    Finally Dan Larson paid in order to share that his wife is doing fine after being involved in a car accident.

Other announcements : 

President Dave announced that despite the haircut, Marc Glass was interviewed and selected for the District Governor position next year. He also thanked Dick and Jean McCarthy, Jack and Janice Sayre, Mary Martin and George Agnelli for the very successful Koats for Kids project. Rotary ended up providing 91 coats to youngsters this year.

CIBA is running a book drive. Gently used children's books can be dropped off at the school up until Oct 31, during school hours, 7:30 - 3:00.

Bob Wood reminded people that the book club will be holding its first meeting at his house on Oct 25th at 7pm. The initial read is "One Summer, America 1927", by Bill Bryson.

George Schoen called for the Golf Committee to meet before next Wed at 11:30 for feedback from the tournament.

Neal Cunningham asked those volunteering for the Marathon to gather at 7am this Saturday.

Doug Willett distributed Fireside Chat locations and meeting leader information. Those who have not signed up yet should get in touch with Doug. If anyone wants to switch meetings, that’s fine, but please let both the leader of your current group and the leader of the one you want to switch to know in advance. Issues being discussed include how to save President Dave from serving as Club President indefinitely, given the lack of President and President Elect for next year. Where do you see the club in 5 years, and how do we respond to diminishing membership? Sue Klock and Marc Glass will also lead a discussion on the Rotary Foundation.

Jack Sayre announced that even though today’s food was pretty good, the lunch committee will be meeting with the caterer Wed afternoon. He also reminded people that people should go through either himself or Wes Willett if they have any issues with the food, or the service.

Jim Watts announced the Paul Harris Committee is looking for nominations. The annual meeting will take place at the Ridge on Nov 1st. Please get your nominations in to Jim before then.

Finally, Dan Larson won the raffle and we moved on to the presentation portion of the meeting.

Jason Jakubowski is the President and CEO of Foodshare. Foodshare is one of the largest anti-hunger organizations in the state. They take in over $24 Million in food donations each year, sorting and distributing those donations to the needy throughout Hartford and Tolland counties.

Most of the donations come from local grocery stores. 1 in 8 people living in Hartford and Tolland counties go hungry. Many are seniors and young children. Over 4700 people, the equivalent of 22 full time staff, volunteer to help to sort and distribute food each year. Many local companies provide employees to help out, including most of the major employers in Hartford.

In the summer of 2015,  the East Hartford Hunger Action Team (HAT) piloted a new meal program at a local church with seed funding from Foodshare. It was so successful that HAT partners have been able to secure enough funding to sustain this program year round. Now 60 people take their place at the dinner table every Tuesday and Thursday, with more than 4,000 meals served to date.

I think we can all agree that Foodshare is a generous and humanitarian organization that we can all support.

Until next time, your scribe, Wes Willett