Othello Rotary donations to feed children and prepare them for school
From left: Othello Food Bank Manager and Rotarian Jose Garza, Othello Rotary Club President Don Burks, ESD 123 Site Manager Corina Flores, ESD 123 Administrator Tammy Buckingham, ESD 123 Support Specialist and Rotarian Maria Martinez and Rotary Club Secretary Sulema Martinez pass over the $4,500 donation that will supply weekend meals for 25 preschool children in Othello.
COURTESY PHOTO/OTHELLO ROTARY CLUB
Lighthouse Community Center Program Director Angela Kudsk, second from left, accepts $1,000 from Rotary Club President Don Burks, left, and Rotarians Maria Martinez, Sulema Martinez and Jose Garza. The money will purchase 100 backpacks filled with supplies to begin the school year.
OTHELLO — The Othello Rotary Club stepped up Thursday for school supplies and meals for school children, with donations to the Othello Food Bank and Lighthouse Community Center.
Club President Don Burks and several fellow Rotarians passed on more than $4,500 to the Othello Food Bank for its Bite 2 Go program.
“That's a program the school started because they were concerned that their younger children would go home and have very little to eat over the weekend,” Burks said.
In the Bite 2 Go program, school counselors identify children who live in homes where food isn’t always readily available, and the food bank sends them home with a care package of meals to get them through the weekend, explained Jose Garza, who’s both the manager of the food bank and a Rotary member. Those meals are paid for through sponsorships, to the tune of $180 per year for elementary school students, $288 per year for middle school students and $360 per year for high schoolers.
“That way (on) Monday when they come back to school, they're more ready for school and not looking for that next meal,” Garza said. “Sometimes it could be lunch time by the time they eat.”
The Othello Rotary Club has sponsored students for a couple of years now, Burks said, but this year the club will underwrite 25 preschool students identified by Educational Service District 123, which is based in Pasco and includes Othello. The Othello Food Bank will buy and package the meals using that money, Garza said, and then send it to the schools.
“We drop (it) off at the counselor's office, usually before Thursday … and then that way they will be able to give it to the students on Friday,” Garza said.
The other donation was $1,000 to Lighthouse Community Center, to purchase 100 backpacks full of school supplies, said Rotarian Sulema Martinez.
The donations are part of the Rotary Club’s mission, as one of the last service clubs in Othello, to support the community, Burks said.
“We look for ways to be useful, and then we try to make that happen,” he said.
Lighthouse Community Center Program Director Angela Kudsk, second from left, accepts $1,000 from Rotary Club President Don Burks, left, and Rotarians Maria Martinez, Sulema Martinez and Jose Garza. The money will purchase 100 backpacks filled with supplies to begin the school year.