Salisbury rotary prepping to pack 20,000 meals

Members of the Rotary Club of Salisbury are preparing for a major event combating food insecurity.

Assisted by other rotary clubs in the district, the Salisbury club is joining an effort known as Rise Against Hunger. It ships food internationally to people considered food insecure. 

Salisbury rotary club president Marie Calafiura tells 47ABC they sought a district grant under the conditions of hosting the meal-package event on Saturday. It will held at the Crown Sports Center in Eden.

According to Calafiura, teams of volunteers will help upload and load trucks and fill bags with the nutrient mix and supplies.

The goal is to pack enough to serve more than 20,000 meals on Saturday. Rise Against Hunger reports 1 million lives nourished by the organization's meals and other aid in 2016. 

“What I’d like to do is number one, let people know there are people in the world that are food insecure,” says Calafiura. “This helps them, so we as a community, and I wish we could do this every year, we as a community could really help others.”

We’re told the Rotary Club of Salisbury would like between 80 and 100 volunteers to assist on Saturday; however, they had less than 40 people committed as of Tuesday.

Anyone interested in assisting on Saturday is urge to contact Marie Calafiura at 410-543-0182 or by email at mbcalafiura@gmail.com.

The event will start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Crown Sports Center on 28410 Crown Road in Eden.