The Silver City Rotary Club will match up to $3,000 in local contributions to help purchase food for The Commons Center for Food Security and Sustainability (“The Commons”) and its free food distributions, consisting of a food pantry, a farmstand, cooking classes, and weekend food bags for Bayard Elementary students and their families.

Niel McDonald, president of the local Rotary Club, is challenging individuals, businesses and other civic organizations to send their donations to the Silver City Rotary Foundation, at P.O. Box 867, Silver City, NM 88062. Donations will be matched 2-for-1 by Rotary and used to expand the amount of food available for distribution to the Elementary School students. Donors wishing to pay by credit card should go to foundation.silvercityrotary.org and click on the Donate button on that page. They should choose the Backpack Program Matching Fund as the purpose of their donation. All donations to the Silver City Rotary Foundation are tax-deductible. 

“We feel the biggest immediate need which poverty is creating in our area is the need for free food for those who cannot longer afford to purchase food for themselves and their families,” says McDonald.

“We are happy to be able to work with The Commons to support their free food distributions and we encourage others in Silver City to join us in this effort.”

Rotary, the world’s oldest and largest service organization, is comprised of business and professional leaders who encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and believe in building goodwill and peace in the world.  It has more than 1.2 million members in 167 countries. Since founding of the Silver City Club in 1923, the local club and its members have provided monetary support and volunteer workers for dozens of Silver City and Grant County civic projects as well as supporting and participating in the many humanitarian projects sponsored by Rotary International.