Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Church packs 10,000 meals for poor in one hour
CONCORD >> At 10:34 a.m., the gong sounded at Concord Liberty Church Saturday, signifying that 1,000 meals had been packed for distribution in Third World countries.
Those gathered only had nine more gongs to go – and they got there by 11:27 a.m.
Members of Concord Liberty Church and of the community gathered at the facility Saturday morning to pack more than 10,000 meals destined for one of 74 poverty-stricken countries through Rise Up Against Hunger.
Formed in 1998, the Raleigh, N.C., organization’s mission is to help the United Nations with its goal of ending world hunger by 2030.
“For people like us who are fortunate enough to live in the United States, hunger for us may be if we skipped lunch or we skipped dinner,” said Ryan Ehnts of Rise Against Hunger.
“Unfortunately, for almost a billion people around the world, hunger is waking up every day not knowing if you’re going to get to eat that day and going to bed the same way,” he continued. “And, some people go to bed two, three, four nights in a row and they have not eaten.”
The situation gets even more dire, he explained.
“Today in 2017, there are still over 21,000 people a day – not a week, not a month, not a year – a day who die of hunger or a hunger-related disease,” he said. “Think about that – that is a football stadium of people every three days dying of hunger.”
That’s why people like Janet Ferris brought her 9-year-old son, Jake, and her 15-year-old daughter, Calie.
“I want them to understand how lucky we are,” she said. “Our kids, they don’t understand that. They have enough to eat. They don’t know what it’s like not to have enough to eat.”
The food, Ehnts explained, is sent to a country in Central America, South America, Southeast Asia or the Caribbean.
About 95 percent of it is distributed through partner non-governmental organizations to transformational school feeding programs.
“The schools offer them free of charge to any child who wants them, as long as they come into school,” Ehnts said. He explained why. “The goal is for them not to become dependent on us but it’s to help them get through school, get an education, help them go to college, learn a trade,” Ehnts said, adding they want them to learn a skill and get a job. “Our goal is more to break the cycle of poverty.”
Participants were divided into sections – the food packing stations, the weighing stations, the sealers and the boxers.
Five people were stationed at each of the 10 food packing stations. There, a vitamin packet was inserted into the bag first, then, the fortified soy protein, followed by a dehydrated vegetable mix and topped off with some rice.
Each packet is intended to feed six people, organizers explained.
Packets were then run to weighing stations, where volunteers removed rice if it exceeded 394 grams and added it if it was below 389 grams.
Then, they were sealed and packed into bigger boxes, which were loaded onto an Enterprise truck waiting in the church’s parking lot.
Concord Liberty member Lauri Cunningham organized the event.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” she said, “and we’ve got people coming out of the woodwork to come help us out. My hope is that they become aware of the hunger problem … and empowered that they can make a difference.”
Jennifer Heald of Bethel recruited about 40 members of Fit Body Bootcamp gym in Chadds Ford.
“We have a really tightknit gym, very supportive,” the Fit Body trainer said. “We like to give back and we like a team-building effort.”
Also a Concord Liberty member, this event seemed like a perfect fit.
“We focus a lot on being grateful and it’s just a way we can all give back,” Heald said.
One of those rounded up included Jackie Rubini, who brought her 9-year-old twins, Jamie and Jaclyn.
“I brought them,” Rubini said, “because I want them to give back and to learn at an early age how fortunate and blessed that we all are. Not only are we blessed to have what we have but to give back as well.”
Twenty-year Concord Liberty member Jill Zohby brought her 14-yearold daughter, Olivia Collins.
“This is awesome,” she said. “This is fun. This is just fun. There’s so many people here. This is nice – it’s a fun way of giving back.”
Even though her teen admitted to having a little difficulty getting up for the Saturday morning event, Collins said she was enjoying the people, the music and the environment as she spooned some vegetable mix into the packets.
“It’s really fun,” she said, “and I like that we’re helping people who don’t have a lot of food. They don’t have food for four days – that’s horrible.”
That’s precisely the lesson her mom was hoping the teen would take away.
“I want her to learn that it’s not about us – it’s about helping others,” Zohby said. “At any point in time, you could be on the other side of this. You could be on the receiving side, so we treat everybody with respect.”