Village of Hamburg Mayor Thomas Tallman presented a plaque to Hamburg Rotarian Earl Knauss recognizing his longstanding efforts to benefit the community through his 51 year-membership of the Rotary Club of Hamburg. The award was in the form of a proclamation congratulating Knauss on his recent selection by Rotary International as one of 150 Rotarians worldwide to receive the Service Above Self Award for establishing the Rotary Club’s Farm to Family Program. The production provided 197,000 pounds of fresh produce last year to economically challenged families through the support of five Eden farms. Farm to Family volunteers, under the direction of Knauss, deliver the produce six days a week during the growing season to food distribution centers and pantries throughout Western New York, including the Southtowns. Knauss founded the program in 2007 after receiving a farmer’s donation of vegetables that were deemed to be too ugly to be marketable, and he began sharing them with food pantries. The distribution continued to grow and became a Rotary project under Knauss’ direction in 2018. Pictured are Knauss and Tallman at the May 5 Rotary meeting at Uncle Joe’s Diner where Tallman was the featured speaker. Rotary meets at Uncle Joe’s on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 6 p.m.