ROCHESTER — Fire Chief Mark Klose is pleased to announce the Rochester Fire Department’s participation in the city’s End 68 Hours of Hunger Program.
The End 68 Hours of Hunger program, is a non-profit community organization that helps provide food to school children that may otherwise go without during their weekend break from school. Rochester’s program, assisted by City Manager Dan Fitzpatrick and sponsored by the Rochester Rotary Club, provides children with meal bags that include two breakfasts, two lunches and three dinners.
End 68 Hours of Hunger is a private, not-for-profit, effort to confront the approximately 68 hours of hunger that some school children experience between the free lunch they receive at school on Friday afternoon and the free breakfast they receive at school on Monday morning. This weekend program, established in New Hampshire in 2011, puts nourishing food in the hands of school children to carry them through the weekend.
This is the second time that the Rochester Fire Department has helped the program by stuffing bags with assorted food, such as cereal, crackers, vegetables, peanut butter and oatmeal.
“We’re grateful that we can help out this cause that supports so many children in our community,” Chief Klose said. “We thank City Manager Fitzpatrick and the Rotary Club for leading this initiative and we look forward to volunteering in the future.”
When the program’s volunteer numbers were low, City Manager Fitzpatrick asked Chief Klose if on-duty firefighters would be willing to help. On each occasion, the on-duty shift, which has happened to be the D Shift both times, has volunteered. Most recently, Lt. Mike George and firefighters Jason Laferte and Matt Parker helped stuff 125 bags in about 30 minutes. The department’s prior participation in the program was led by Lt. George, firefighter Micah Ruel and firefighter Josh Biron.
End 68 Hours of Hunger is entirely volunteer based and contributes 100 percent of its funds to feeding at-risk children. For more information on the program and how to get involved, visit their website at http://www.end68hoursofhunger.org/.
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