Wi-ACT's Rise Against Hunger Meal Packaging Event
Saturday, October 19th is Wi-ACT’s annual all-day meal-packaging event
The work is done in two-hour shifts: 9-11 am, 11-1 pm, 1-3 pm, and 3-5 pm
You can choose your shift on that site as long as space is available for that shift. Youth aged 13 and above can sign up on their own; younger youth and children (as young as 6) should sign up with their parents.The meals packaged serve children in educational settings wherever in the world the need is greatest at the time of the event. Our work is done in conjunction with the highly rated nonprofit Rise Against Hunger, Inc. Each volunteer is also asked to bring a nonperishable item for local food pantries.
For on-line registration click here.
We passed the one million meal mark for this event last year and are looking forward to a good start to our next million this year! Hundreds of children are fed with what we package each year, and they’re fed for an entire year in educational settings where they are nourished in mind as well as in body. We are now not only Rise Against Hunger’s largest meal-packaging event in all of New England but also one of its largest nationally. In addition to meal packaged, this past October three SUVs were filled to capacity with volunteers’ donated food items going to local food pantries.
With 700 volunteers participating in two-hour shifts to do this meal-packaging work, we always feel the spirit generated by an enormous community effort, and the experience of working together in this way is reflected in words heard from volunteers about their meal-packaging work, including "well organized", "fun", "fulfilling", "joyful", “very satisfying to know what we accomplished”, and "high-energy." In fact, more than a few families of veteran volunteers have included their grandparents from out of town in the packaging work because they want their whole family to share in the experience!
The meals cost Wi-ACT 31 cents per meal for the bulk ingredients (many delivered in 50-pound sacks) that are then mixed and poured into individual packages that are weighed, sealed, boxed, and palletized -- all during the course of this one very full day. Wi-ACT really needs and greatly welcomes financial support to meet its annual meal-packaging funding goal, which is $50,000. Wi-ACT’s meal-packaging contributors include its twelve faith institutions, Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim, and generous individuals and local businesses. All of the funds raised go for bulk ingredient purchases at that 31 cents total cost per meal.
So please use the on-line registration to sign-up promptly to ensure you get the shift you want. The two earliest shifts tend to fill up especially fast!
-- Wi-ACT Steering Committee