This past Sunday afternoon, 95 volunteers from the Boothbay Harbor and Damariscotta-Newcastle Rotary Clubs packaged 30,000 meals for needy families at the Damariscotta Central YMCA as part of an “End Hunger in New England” campaign.

The Boothbay contingent included 40 people -- 30 volunteers from the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club plus area friends and neighbors. The Boothbay contingent was led by Boothbay Rotary’s President-elect Tony Curulla and Past President Jim Botti.

Upon arriving, volunteers donned hairnets, beard nets and rubber gloves and formed 16 assembly lines under the guidance of Mathew Martin, the New England director of Outreach Inc., which puts on these events and provides the bulk materials for the meals. Volunteers were taught how to measure, weigh and seal each packet of macaroni and cheese, rice and beans, and pasta with tomato basil. Each packet contained enough food for six meals, each fortified with vitamins (40 percent more nutritious than, for example, Kraft Mac & Cheese) and each "child friendly," needing only to be opened and boiled like instant ramen. The packets were then boxed to be delivered to local food pantries.

Boothbay Rotary packaged 10,000 meals which will go to the Boothbay Food Pantry providing free food to needy families and to Food For Thought. The latter, a program of the Boothbay Region Community Resources Council, delivers food parcels to children on the Boothbay peninsula who, regrettably, are known to go hungry on the weekends. The Club estimated 10,000 meals would be sufficient for the two groups for two years, the shelf life of the sealed parcels.

In addition to the volunteer labor, Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club contributed $1,250 towards the $2,500 cost of the raw materials for its 10,000 meals. Rotary Club members and friends donated the $1,250 balance. Costs broke down to 25 cents per meal or $1.50 for a six-meal bag.

Volunteers from both clubs completed packaging a total 30,000 meals in five hours from noon to 5 p.m.

If the Rotary Club’s guess of 10,000 meals for two years is short, and, similarly, if Damariscotta Rotary's estimate of 20,000 meals for their seven area food pantries turns out to be insufficient, the two clubs will consider another packaging party next year, perhaps at the Boothbay YMCA.

This was the first joint project undertaken by the two neighboring Rotary Clubs in over a decade. Boothbay Rotary President Ham Meserve said, “Partnering on this important initiative with the Damariscotta-Newcastle Club was one of my major goals for my 2015/2016 term. We know that there are hungry people on our peninsula, and many of them are children and seniors.”