Philomath Rotary joined three Corvallis-area Rotary groups this spring for a first-of-its-kind interclub food drive competition, an effort that resulted in the collection of 60,660 pounds of food — worth an estimated $12,133 — for South Corvallis Food Bank and Philomath Community Services.
The idea grew out of monthly meetings between the presidents of the four clubs and Assistant District Governor Peggy Sweet, where members compare notes and swap ideas. The clubs have collaborated in pairs before, but hadn’t taken on a joint project involving all four in years, Rotary Club of Philomath President Robert Hulshof-Schmidt said.
“After batting around a few ideas, we decided that food insecurity was something significant in the county that we could probably make at least a short-term, sizable impact in,” Hulshof-Schmidt said, adding the clubs agreed a lighthearted challenge format would make the effort fun…