It has indeed been an honor to serve the Multiple District of Governors, the NoAMI/Gat team, the Council Chair and the Lions Clubs of California on the Hunger Specialty Committee. Right from the start it was not difficult to raise the awareness of the need for food during the Pandemic. The job was to work closely with the Governors and their Clubs through workshop, emails, phone calls and to further the intentions and efforts of NoAMI/Gat team to serve over the top by having a contest in February to do more because the need was so great. All the Governors and many of their clubs stepped up and we raised millions of pounds of food serving hundreds of thousands of food deprived people and first responders during the worse year our nation has ever seen. Our Governors found ways to serve with masks, gloves, face shields, gowns and thermometers. Lions serving with dignity, friendliness, no judgement, just a smile.
In order, for our committee to help our Lions keep up the pace to meet the need without burning out our hard workers we held workshops and used every mode of communication possible to give them lists of where and how they could enlist volunteers and companies and farmers to assist with all aspects of getting food to the needy. For example, doing joint ventures with food delivery companies to have each member of their club order a food box of fresh organic various food for their own families at a 20% discount and receive a free box that would be delivered to an address of their choice. They could also contact some of the 70,000 farmers in California to deliver their excess food after a run to food banks in their area in the name of their club. All in all, we gave 32 tips on how to feed the hungry and first responders this year. The truth is all the tips we gave are sustainable and can be used year after year and we will continue to feed hundreds of thousands in California.
In conclusion, we recommend that we continue finding new ways to find volunteers who will join us as Lions to feed the hungry and uncover new and sustainable ways to add to what we did this year of great service. Thank you all especially PDG’s Esther Lee, Mark Piva, PCC David Radtke. Sincerely, Lion E. Britter