Rotarians From Lawrenceburg and Neighboring Communities Pack 12,000 Meals To Feed The Hungry

Over 50 Rotarians, family, and friends from Lawrenceburg and neighboring communities joined together at Lawrenceburg Rotary Park on Saturday, March 7, 2026 to assemble meal packets for distribution to the hungry. For the eighth consecutive year, the Lawrenceburg Rotary Club partnered with Rise Against Hunger, an international hunger relief organization that distributes food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable. For the third year in a row, Rotarians from Pulaski, and Columbia assisted with the event and this year were joined by Rotarians from Franklin.

The project consisted of assembling dehydrated food packages containing rice, soy, mixed vegetables, and a vitamin packet capable of feeding up to six people. The Lawrenceburg Rotary Club purchased food and supplies through Rise Against Hunger which also provided workstations and guidance on how to efficiently package the items. Rise Against Hunger will consolidate locally assembled packages with output from similar events, then ship overseas to a disaster area or other sustainable program where food is needed.  Recent locations include:

2019 - Haiti
2020 - Haiti
2021 - Haiti
2022 - Madagascar
2023 - Haiti
2024 - Ukraine Emergency 

Event coordinator Maria Santini stated “After participating in one of these events at our Rotary District Conference in 2018, I wondered if Lawrenceburg Rotary could do such a project on its own. Our club’s Board agreed to fund the project and we found enthusiastic support from our club’s membership”. This has become an annual event for our club and we have packaged over 100,000 meals in the last eight years. Rotarians from Pulaski, Columbia and Franklin assisted with this year’s event”.

The Lawrenceburg Rotary Club is a member of Rotary International, an organization consisting of 1.2 million Rotarians in over 46,000 clubs operating in 200 countries and regions across the globe. The local club manages the Middle Tennessee District Fair and numerous other projects in Lawrenceburg and Lawrence County, Tennessee.