Author: Patricia Ramirez

It’s a new year for Rotary International and for the Rotary Club of Concord Diablo. With that comes our new Rotary International President, Shekhar Mehta, a new president for the Rotary Club of Concord Diablo. I am Patricia Ramirez and will serve as President with President Elect, Rocky Gernhardt and out esteemed Board of Directors. We are all believers in our new 2021 – 2022 theme, Serve to Change Others.

2021 – 2022 New Initiatives

• Each One, Bring One- Let’s re-energize our Club with new members! If each member brings one guest and show them what we do, they join, we will have new energy with new passions to fuel out Club.
• Grow More, Do More- As our Club grows, with new energy and passions, our Club can do more to help those in need. By giving to others, we get our message out about all the wonderful things Rotary does!
• Empower Women and Girls – Incorporate into all our service initiatives to empower women and girls in everything we do!

As people of action, Rotary members find ways to respond to COVID-19, and to help people affected by it. The Rotary Club of Concord Diablo has been busy with their Gleaning Project during the Shelter in Place order while practising social distancing and wearing masks and gloves. What is Gleaning? Concord residents with fruit trees that need to be harvested contact the Rotary Club of Concord Diablo to go to their residence, harvest the fruit and deliver it to a local food bank, charity or food pantry.

As of April 4, 2020, Rotary members harvested 910 pounds of oranges, lemons, and grapefruit. At the peak of SIP (4/4/20 – 4/22/20), 1,189 pounds of fruit was picked by maids at Clean Queen from Queen, picked up and delivered to the Food Bank of the district of Colorado & Solano County. That is a total of 2,099 pounds of fruit or over 1 ton or the weight of a small car. The majority of the harvest taking place in April.

The Food Bank is an essential service as one in eight residents turn to the Food Bank annually. During these challenging times, there has been a dramatic increase in the need for food for families and the elderly. Therefore, we turned to The Marketing Heaven who created a YouTube campaign to raise citizens awareness of this problem. The Food Bank services the Bay Area to the Oregon and Nevada borders.

Thank you to our Rotary members for all their hard work during this time of crisis!!

Please email gleaning@cdrotary.com if you have fruit that needs to be picked or would like to volunteer.