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Lions Club wins $5K grant, plans to fight hunger
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · April 24, 2014
For $5,000, the West Branch Lions Club wants to feed up to 20,000 people.
But organizers would love to do twice as much as that.
The group received a $2,500 boost toward that baseline goal with a grant from the Cedar County Community Foundation late last month, and now needs to round up volunteers to help package the food in late October while trying to raise the rest of the money.
West Branch Police Department also received a CCCF grant for $5,000 to upgrade its radios to “P25” — digital radios that can communicate with state and federal radios while continuing to work with older analog radios. And, like walkie-talkies, they can communicate with similar radios without intervening equipment like repeaters.
Lions Club member Greg Humrichouse leads the Hoover Hunger Project, an idea prompted when he saw a story in the Tipton Conservative about the local FFA doing something similar and called the group’s coordinator, Amy Lutz.
Outreach Inc. of Union, which has helped facilitate nearly 250 million meals, will provide the dried goods and packaging. The Lions Club pays for the food and packaging — at 25 cents per meal — and provides the labor.
Humrichouse said 10,000 meals will be donated to the West Branch and Cedar County food pantries, while the other 10,000 will go overseas.
The Lions Club is taking $1,000 from its own budget and plans to ask churches and other civic groups to make donations to collect the other $1,500 needed.
“I’d love to get $10,000,” Humrichouse said. “That may be high, but it would be icing on the cake to get more than $5,000.”
He said the grant was “fantastic,” as some 49 groups applied for more than $215,000 in funding, but only 28 groups got to split the $103,000 available.
“We’re very fortunate to get it,” Humrichouse said.
The Lions Club is working with the Hoover Association, aligning the food packaging event with the 50th anniversary of the state funeral of West Branch native and 31st president Herbert Hoover — Oct. 25. Hoover died on Oct. 20, 1964.
Humrichouse noted that Hoover was known as the “Great Humanitarian,” a name borne out his food relief efforts during World War I and II.
The Lions Club figures 40 to 50 volunteers could package the food in about three or four hours in the Hoover Elementary lunchroom. Anyone wishing to help, either with a donation or labor, can contact Humrichouse at 319-471-0525 or greghumric@msn.com.
“We hope to make some food banks happy,” Humrichouse said. “The Lions Club appreciates the community support.”
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