Stop Hunger Now

My church has various outreach projects throughout the year, though usually I am unable to participate due to other commitments. One I was able to participate in after school got out was Stop Hunger Now, a Raleigh-based organization that the church was hosting. On Sunday, June 2, the church had three shifts during the day to pack meals to be shipped to Africa to fight global hunger. The organization uses a very efficient system that was fascinating to see in action: plastic bags traveled from station to station, a different ingredient added at each one until being sealed and put into boxes. Each meal can feed 4-6 people and is very nutritious with added vitamins and nutrients.

My job was to package the meal for shipping and to ring a gong whenever we hit the 100-meal mark (we were all supposed to cheer when this happened). After something of a slow start, everything began to go smoothly. The number of meals we packaged astonished me; everything went so quickly. By the end of the shift, we had packaged nearly 1,000, far more than I expected. I didn't think we could have that much of an impact, but in reality anyone can make a difference.

Global hunger is a very pressing issue; before we started packaging, the leader from Stop Hunger Now outlined some statistics about starvation. To be honest, it was a little disheartening; the numbers seemed overwhelming. But the important thing is to not be discouraged by the enormity of the task. We must persevere in the face of any challenges to be successful. I hope there will be a time when no one goes hungry.