Celebrate Community Week (Sept 11-17, 2023) started a few years ago to encourage members of local Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, and Optimist clubs to work together on collaborative service projects and showcase the value of service in our communities. Service projects focus on the environment, food insecurity and hunger, health and wellness, and education and literacy. It is intended to involve youth groups also.
In addition to making new friends, we can do more when we work together harnessing the collective power of our four organizations’ 3.4 million members and Celebrate Community together.
The Rotary Club of Norristown and the Kiwanis Club of Collegeville connected through mutual friends to plan a collaborative project in early August.
The groups reached out to Martha’s Choice Marketplace, a food pantry located in Norristown. Martha’s Choice was helpful in providing a short list of badly needed items to aid the Montgomery County community. Following our project discussion, a picnic was planned on Aug. 31st for both clubs to meet and begin assembling collected items and it was off to a good start.
The final delivery at Martha’s Choice was on Sept 12th where the team members met and dropped off a full pallet of food and personal care and household items.
The project was a great opportunity for all three organizations to partner, make new friends and build team synergy in serving others in need.
Martha’s Choice Marketplace is the largest food pantry serving Montgomery County addressing food insecurity. They operate not only a food pantry but also a food grower. They operate a small community farm/garden in Audubon. Last year they delivered 2.3 million pounds of food, personal care and household items to those in need. And their client base grew 66% last year. They eagerly accepted our contributions.
Martha’s Choice https://marthaschoicemarketplace.com