Once again it was my pleasure to welcome you all along to our dinner meeting on the 28th of May.
Attendance was down mainly due to members away on holiday to a better climate in the Northern hemisphere.
It was also a pleasure to welcome our two RYLA candidates, who introduced themselves to the members.
Megan Wolak is a 27-year-old with a Bachelor of Communication, currently working in the insurance industry. Megan fell in love with fitness and aspires of doing an ultra marathon later this year.
Matthew O’Connell is a 24-year-old who has just completed a Law degree [with honours] at the university of Auckland. Matthew has just started his first job at PWC. He is looking forward to the challenge of the RYLA course.
Our quest speaker for the evening was Angela Carver. CEO of Kiwi Harvest.
Angela was introduced to the members by Rob Mouncey.
Rob also highlighted that Kiwi Harvest was an award winner at the very recent East Auckland Business awards 2024.
They were the winner of “Excellence in Community Impact.”
The Rotary Club of Howick is a sponsor of these awards.
Angela’s presentation proceeded with an overhead presentation that outlined Kiwi Harvest as New Zealand’s largest food rescue venture.
They collect food which is good enough to eat, yet won’t sell, and distribute it to front line agencies providing food support to our most vulnerable communities.
Kiwi Harvest rescues over 200,000 Kilos of food every month, the equivalent to over 570,000 meals.
Apart from feeding hungry people, Kiwi Harvest prevent food from going to landfill where it produces methane as it degrades, a harmful greenhouse gas.
Kiwi Harvest has 270 food donors and 220 recipient agencies.
They have five branches throughout New Zealand with eleven vehicles and twenty staff.
There is a high reliance on volunteers with a need for approximately 40 volunteers per week.
Kiwi Harvest also responds to needs during natural disasters, floods and fires.
Their Moto is- “Feed more Waste less”
There were several questions from the floor.
Rob Mouncey thanked Angela for a very informative presentation. All club members showed their appreciation in the normal manner.
Rotary Business then took place-
Mike Abercrombie was sergeant for the night as Steve Lines and Sarah are enjoying a well-deserved break in Noosa, Australia.
Mike extracted money from members by way of fines. We may all have to be careful when socialising with Mike! This was a practice run for Mike’s year as sergeant which is imminent.
Congratulations to the raffle winners.
New World vouchers: -Fred Holland/Colin Monk.
Have a go Raffle: - Jenny Richardson/Gavin Green.
Our current fund raisers are.
Blankets for Kids for winter. Blankets being sorted and a deal has been struck to purchase stock using the funds donated.
Bookarama for Kids and Teens...About to kick in for June collections and then the sale on July the 10th to 12th.
Many thanks to you all for making it such an enjoyable evening.
Thanks to Pat Carole and Glenice for setting up the venue and the tidy up at the end.
Next meeting is set down for the 11th of June. A club assembly at which directors will report on their committees work during the year.
Kind Regards,
Stay well and keep warm.
Malcolm J Pascoe.
