Submitted by Soroptimist of Friday Harbor

Recently, the Soroptimist International of Friday Harbor voted to donate $10,500 to the Rotary Club of San Juan Island to support their 36 Weekends program. This program offers meals for weekends to children who receive free or partially funded lunches during the school year out of concern for these children who miss those meals on weekends and school holidays. They also offer a summer weekend meal program. Not only do the Rotary Club volunteers purchase and pack these meals but they also deliver to individuals at the end of each week.

One of the missions of SIFRI is to address Food Insecurity by providing food and delivery to shut-ins during the holiday seasons and by collaborating with the Nourish to Flourish group of community leaders who meet to understand hunger issues and provide information, education, and food resources to the public at large. Members of Nourish to Flourish include the County Health Department, the school district, Food Bank, Food CO-OP, Meals on Wheels, the Mullis Community Senior Center, Family Resource Center, SIFRI and the Farmer’s Market.

Through this collaboration, we are able to focus on where the needs are met or are duplicated and where they are needed to ensure we are not missing certain groups in the community who have nutrition needs. The goal of the collaboration with these organizations is to provide the community with the most current information and how to access the various food insecurity programs offered by our members as listed on the nourishtoflourishwa.org website under the “Resources” heading.

Nourish to Flourish will next meet on Feb. 6 at 1 p.m. at the Heritage Bank conference room.