Our Daily Bread

Title: Our Daily Bread -- Fresh Market to North Fulton Charities Pantry Delivery
Summary: Rotarians of the Rotary Club of Alpharetta recognized that “food insecurity” was a significant problem in our community in 2001. Then, as now, many families have to make tough choice when it comes to deciding what to pay for within their limited means. Food is always one of the choices. We decided to partner with the Food Pantry at North Fulton Community Charities who annually distributes food over 20,000 times. We needed a food source and found it at Fresh Market who was willing to make their day old breads and pastries available. Every day Monday through Friday a Rotarian makes the trip to Fresh Market. The pick-up and delivery usually take one to two hours depending on where they begin their trip and the volume of goods. After bagging and loading the breads and pastries at Fresh Market the Rotarian drives the 9 miles to deliver to the NFCC Food Pantry. There are approximately 250 pick-up and deliveries a year with an estimated value about $100K. It is fair to say over the years 95% of our memberships have participated in this service project. All new members must complete a pick-up and delivery to the Food Pantry as part of the Red to Blue checklist. To know that an hour of your time puts bread on the table of many families who are food insecure in our community increases Rotarians awareness of issues in our community.