Butler Rotary Club PM launches Community Meal Ministries partnership
Butler Rotary Club PM launched a new satellite club in conjunction with five local churches aiming to collaborate in providing financial support to carry out daily meals.
The Community Meal Ministries of the Rotary Club of Butler includes First English Lutheran Church, All Saints Parish, Saint Andrews United Presbyterian Church, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and First United Methodist Church.
In a news release, the PM Rotary Club said Community Meal Ministries’ mission is to raise awareness of and provide financial support to the Butler area ministries that are collaborating to provide daily meals for families and individuals.
“As we’ve talked for long periods of time, we found that we needed to have our own 501(c)(3), and through the Rotary, this was offered so that we could apply to this and become a satellite club,” Maryann Swanson, one of First English Lutheran Church’s community dinners coordinators, said. “It will be helpful to us, especially for fundraising.”
The news release emphasized that while the churches are not direct partners with the Rotary, they are new members of the satellite club partnership that “provides a structural nonprofit backbone, along with manpower and fundraising support.”
Justine Brown, manager of Katie’s Kitchen at St. Mark’s, said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the five churches already providing community meals in Butler got together to form a loose group that has since evolved.
“COVID had us all trying to work our way through it, and one of the things we were adamant about was that the clients we serve, we needed to be fairly consistent in what we did. And since then, within the next couple of years, our group became known as the Community Meal Ministries,” Brown said.
Brown said the partnership needed to reach more donors. When they wanted to become a nonprofit, they researched becoming one on their own, but found that to be very time-consuming. The Rotary had then suggested establishing a satellite club under its banner.
Brown also said they are excited that the Rotary is helping establish a website and more of a presence on social media soon. He noted the Rotary has been generous in helping support the Community Meal Ministries Gala and this is continuing the partnership.
“This ministry is a great way to extend Rotary’s mission of ‘service above self’ and advances Rotary’s focus areas of disease prevention, and maternal and child health by providing healthy meals daily for those who may otherwise not have a warm meal on any given day,” Shawn Pugh, president of the PM Rotary, said in the news release.
Ray Christy, who has served as the kitchen coordinator at First United Methodist, will be chairman of the new satellite club. He said in the news release that the ministries needed “a reasonable solution that would provide a backbone for our fundraising efforts to support the community meals,” and that forming a whole new nonprofit would be too expensive. This partnership brings “new friends and resources to the table.”
Swanson said the Community Meal Ministries Gala will be held again this year toward the end of March, continuing its goal of raising funds for all five churches, as well as building new relationships between the churches and community members.
Swanson said it’s good to see efforts to continue helping the churches provide meals for the communities. Swanson, along with a few others, have been involved for over 30 years.
“(It’s) been a blessing,” she said.
“If you come to any of the churches between 5 and 6 any night of the week, you would see how important it is,” Swanson said. “Those who come to our door have great need in many ways, and they’re so grateful for what these churches have done.”
