District 6820 PDG, Amanda Fontaine, spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club’s March 13, 2018, meeting. The topic of her speech was Rotary Membership. Quoting a past RI president, Ms.  Fontaine said that the main reason that many people have not joined Rotary is that they have never been asked to join. In conjunction with her attendance at the meeting, club members were asked to sit with people that they do not know at the meeting. She then asked the membership to determine the most interesting fact about the members that no one else knew at their tables and for a representative of the table to report that fact to the membership. Some very interesting facts were presented. Tom Turner said that he had served in both World War II and the Korean conflict. The first time in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and the second in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps.

PDG Fontaine is shown during her talk in the accompanying photo.

North Jackson Rotarians Tom Turner and Brad Benton were recognized as Paul Harris Fellows at the Rotary Club of North Jackson’s March 13, 2018, meeting. Dr. Turner was recognized as a multiple Paul Harris Fellow and awarded a Paul Harris pin with a sapphire. As part of their recognition, the two awardees received a glass of dry sherry in keeping with the club's recently established tradition.  

 The accompanying photo shows district 6820 PDG Amanda Fontaine (left), Club Director Suman Das. (2nd from left) and club President Witt Ruffin (right) presenting the awards to Messrs. Benton (2nd from right) & Turner (3rd from right). Congratulation to both Tom & Brad!

North Jackson Rotarians joined with the Rotary Club of Jackson to pack nutritious food packages for the Rise Against Hunger nonprofit at the Sparkman Auditorium of the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum on Saturday, March 3, 2018. In a three hour shift, the Rotarians packed 30,000 meals.

Rise Against Hunger, formerly Stop Hunger Now, is an international hunger relief non-profit organization that coordinates the packaging and distribution of food and other life-changing aid to people in developing nations. Founded in 1998, Rise Against Hunger mobilizes more than 350,000 volunteers each year to package meals for people in need around the globe. Since 2005, Rise Against Hunger has distributed more than 315,000,000 meals to recipients in 74 countries with a mission to end hunger in our lifetime.

Rise Against Hunger is an international hunger relief agency that seeks to end global hunger by engaging local volunteers. The organization was formed in 1998 by Ray Buchanan, a United Methodist Minister, and began its meal packaging program in 2005. The organizational mission is stated as "Rise Against Hunger is driven by the vision of a world without hunger. Its mission is to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable and creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources."

Part of Rise Against Hunger’s mission is to create a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources to end hunger. Rise Against Hunger works with volunteer groups from communities of faith, corporations, schools and civic clubs to package meals while developing a greater awareness of hunger-related issues. Additionally, Rise Against Hunger engages its supporters to participate in advocacy activities to work toward changing laws, policies, systems and attitudes to end hunger by 2030.R

The assembly process combines rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a micronutrient flavoring mix formulated by Kraft Heinz Company Foundation that includes 23 essential vitamins and minerals. Each meal costs 29 cents. The food has a shelf-life of two years. Rise Against Hunger provides over 70% of its meals to support transformational development programs such as school lunch programs, vocational training programs, early childhood development programs, orphanages, and medical clinics. Working with these programs helps enhance lives by giving beneficiaries the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty through education, skills development, and healthcare while also receiving much-needed nutrition.

The photos are from the event.

Relatively new members of the Rotary Club of North Jackson, Erin Rutherford (left)  and Jenny Price (right),

made their vocational talks to the club at its March 6, 2018, meeting.

Ms. Rutherford, a native of Vicksburg, is an estate planning attorney with Glover Russell in Jackson, MS. She is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and of the University's School of Law. Ms. Price, originally from Tupelo, is a real estate agent in Jackson. She is a graduate of Mississippi College and worked in education in North Mississippi and at Mississippi College before beginning her real estate career.  She also coordinates the club’s Between the Lions program that reads weekly to inner-city Pre-K students. Both Erin and Jenny we raised in Rotary families, so their membership in the club is a natural progression from their fathers. We thank both of these women for their presentations, for their membership in our club, and for what they do for the community.

James (Jamie) Eubanks, Director, Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, MS Dept. of Revenue spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club’s February 27, 2018, Meeting.  He described the ABC’s operation and said that Mississippi is one of 17 states with ABC divisions. The ABC supplies all of the wine and liquor stores in MS from its Gluckstadt warehouse.  

Mr. Eubanks said that he believes the MS operation is the best in the country. The Division has a total of 92 employees and uses two contract delivery companies for deliveries to retailers. ABC puts a 27% markup on products that it distributes.

We thank Mr. Eubanks for his presentation to our club and for his service to the State of Mississippi. He (center) is shown in the accompanying photo with Matt Monsour (left) who introduced him and Club President Witt Ruffin (right).