Cal U. event aimed at global hunger
Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania
From left, California University of Pennsylvania students David Merz, Kayla Germini and Amanda Considine volunteered to help pack food last week during a university event supporting the global-relief nonprofit Rise Against Hunger.
Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania
Mike Bordonaro, a sophomore from New Kensington, works at a table with other students sealing bags packed with rice, soybeans, other vegetables and vitamin packets. The meal-preparation event was held Nov. 14 in the Natali Performance Center at California University of Pennsylvania, where 70 student volunteers packed 10,000 meals into boxes to be distributed globally for Rise Against Hunger.
Courtesy of California University of Pennsylvania
Students fill the Natali Performance Center at California University of Pennsylvania on Nov. 14 for a Rise Against Hunger meal-packing event.
CALIFORNIA – While holding a bag under a funnel to catch scoops of dehydrated vegetables and rice, David Merz paused to reflect on what he was doing.
“Everyone needs a helping hand now and then,” said the 22-year-old from West Newton, “and I’m glad that it’s my hand doing it.”
He was one of about 75 California University of Pennsylvania students who spent about two hours packing high-longevity, nourishing food for shipment by Rise Against Hunger, a global-relief nonprofit based in Raleigh, N.C., during an event last week.
In assembly-line fashion in a large room of Natali Student Center, the student volunteers filled and sealed 10,000 bags with the rice and vegetables, plus soy and vitamin packets.
“We’ll put them into inventory, and they’ll be scheduled for shipment … usually in the next couple weeks,” said Brady Smith, who works for Rise in the group’s Pittsburgh office. He was on hand during the Cal U. event, DJing a pop-heavy lineup of music as the volunteers cheerfully worked in hairnets and translucent gloves.
Each of the bags is considered a meal for six people. Recipients are often institutions like schools and orphanages that must prepare meals for large groups of people. The meals stay good for up to two years.
“When (the bags) get prepared, it turns into – I always describe it kind of like grits,” Smith said. “If you’re feeding a group of 30, you’d probably want to cook five or six.”
The event was part of the school’s Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, which was organized by the center for volunteer programs and service learning.
“This is a program that is for our students to be able to help on a global level for hunger and homelessness,” said Diane Hasbrouck, director of the center.
Rise Against Hunger was founded in 1998 by Ray Buchanan, a United Methodist minister, and began its food-packaging program in the mid-2000s. It’s grown to the point where it has offices in 28 U.S. cities, and has shipped to recipients in dozens of crises and domestic crisis zones.
“They look for the best value as to where it’s going to be cost-effective,” said Smith, who recently returned from helping distribute a shipment in Belize. “So out of Pittsburgh, we’d never ship to Vietnam, just like L.A. would never ship to West Africa.”
The group was known as Stop Hunger Now until it announced it was changing its name last year. Smith said the group often partners with churches, schools and civic groups to help prepare meals.
“There are a lot of people who are interested in doing this, so it spreads organically,” he added.
Alan Ninan, a 22-year-old student from the Philadelphia area who works part-time for Rise Against, said the group’s mission goes beyond just feeding people to providing better opportunities to them.
“We want to not only nourish but educate and empower people to become self-sustaining,” Ninan said.
He said there’s also an educational value for the volunteers who helped him last week.
“I’d say that they get to experience being global citizens while still being in Cal, Pa.,” Ninan said.
Amanda Considine, 18, of Youngstown, Ohio, was working at the same table as Merz. She said she and Ninan are involved in the university’s student government.
“This is a real world problem that we wanted to be able to help out on our campus, so we decided to sponsor this event,” Considine said.