Rotary District 5370 creates over 200,000 meals for developing nations

The EnCana Event Centre may have had Col. Chris Hadfield visiting on the weekend, but that was nowhere near the end of amazing occurrences during the conference.

In a partnership with Stop Hunger Now, Rotary Club District 5370 packaged 286,832 meals during the entire weekend – 95% of which will be used for school lunches for students in developing countries.

District Governor Tim Schilds said this is the first time the American-based Stop Hunger Now has been this far north. They told him that this was the biggest event they have ever held in Canada.

He said that close to 1,000 people were involved in packaging meals, in 2-3 hour shifts.

“There was about 200 people a shift who showed up,” he said.

Rotarians made 100,000 meals on Friday and Saturday – and the entire community participated to package 186,832 on just Sunday.

The meals will be shipped soon, and Schilds said the countries they are shipped too still have to be confirmed – but they are likely Honduras and Guatemala, and maybe the Philippines.

“It was absolutely phenomenal how everything came off and how energized everybody is to do more.”

Keynote speakers at the conference included Human rights activist Sally Armstrong, Motivational Speaker Alvin Law, and of course, retired astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield.