We are pleased to announce that, in partnership with Falmouth Rotary Club, we have secured a District Grant for $3500. Together, Westbrook and Falmouth Rotary Clubs will augment My Place Teen Center’s new Culinary / Wellness program.
Partnering provides an opportunity to invest our time, money and energy wisely. Improving the lives of disadvantaged youth and breaking the cycle of poverty for families in our immediate area is an initiative we can get excited about. MPTC is an organization serving the greater Portland community in a way that truly changes lives by serving at risk youth ages 10 to 18 with a unique after school program.
Our project, adding to My Place Teen Center’s Culinary / Wellness program, includes four related initiatives:
1. Provide qualified speakers on the topic of wellness from our clubs, as well as wellness and nutrition experts in our community, for after-meal presentations and discussions at My Place Teen Center on a monthly basis. We will actively engage with the young people served by my place teen center helping to bring the best teaching on wellness topics to these kids.
2. In addition to wellness and nutritional topics, members will speak about their own careers at some of the monthly after-meal presentations. They will describe the nature of their work, steps to attaining the appropriate job skills, and related career opportunities. In this way our Rotary clubs will augment MPTC’s program by providing additional insight into non-foodservice career paths.
3. Volunteer our time once monthly (at a minimum), in conjunction with the above 2 initiatives, as volunteers at MPTC’s upgraded kitchen and dining room facility. We will support the new Food service / wellness initiative by assisting as needed in the preparation tasks alongside MPTC’s members and staff. This would be prior to the after-meal discussion thus providing better opportunity to connect with the young people we will be serving.
4. Our club and district monies will be used to provide a year’s worth of food nutritional food (dairy, fresh vegetables and fresh fruit) and kitchen staples (cleaning products, paper products etc) critical to both a commercial kitchen environment and healthy eating. The focus of this MPTC program necessitates these healthier foods and commercial kitchen supplies. Donated food, while appreciated, is often processed and of lesser nutritional quality. The grant money requested, $3500, plus $2000 from each club, totaling $7500 will insure that this specific food will be available throughout this first critical year.
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