Volunteers to Prepare 500,000 Meals over 3 Days for People in Need
Birmingham, AL (PRWEB) February 03, 2015 -- This Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (February 8-10, 2015), 3,000 volunteers from the Birmingham community will package 500,000 meals for people in need around the world.
The weekend's meal packaging blitz will bring the total number of meals these churches have prepared to two million since 2011. Over 8,000 congregation members across the five churches have contributed to this on-going partnership to combat extreme hunger and malnutrition with Stop Hunger Now.
Volunteers will start packaging meals Sunday at 5 p.m at Canterbury United Methodist Church at 350 Overbrook Rd., then continue on Monday from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Other Birmingham churches that have partnered with Stop Hunger Now to package meals for people in need in Honduras, Haiti, Azerbaijan, Zambia and the Philippines are Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, St. Stephens Episcopal Church, and Brookwood Baptist Church.
“Five years ago we began partnering with Stop Hunger Now and now thousands of volunteers come together across race, socioeconomic, faith, age and political differences to think and act on world hunger,” says Rachel Estes, director of outreach and missions at Canterbury United Methodist Church.
A meal-packaging event is a volunteer-based assembly-line production process. At the first station, volunteers mix four meal ingredients through a funnel into a specially designed bag. The bag then is carried to the next station, where it is weighed and heat-sealed shut. The sealed bag is brought to the next station, where bags are counted and packaged into boxes that are labeled to indicate the package date and "best used by" date of the meals. At the end of the event, the Stop Hunger Now transports meals back to its warehouse to await shipment abroad.
Throughout the world, over 805 million people lack adequate food. Stop Hunger Now operates meal packaging locations in 19 U.S. cities and in South Africa, Malaysia, the Philippines and Italy. Over 450,000 volunteers from corporations, churches, schools and civic organizations have packaged over 150 meals that Stop Hunger Now has distributed in 51 countries since it began its food-packaging program in 2005.
Interview opportunities will be available Sunday at Canterbury United Methodist Church with Ray Buchanan, founder of Stop Hunger Now; Kyle Galenski, regional program manager for Stop Hunger Now; Rachel Estes, director of outreach and mission at Canterbury United Methodist Church; Bill Morgan, senior minister at Canterbury United Methodist Church; Mark LaGory, deacon at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church; and local community volunteers.
For information contact Kyle Galenski, 404.312.3913.
About Stop Hunger Now
Stop Hunger Now distributes food and other life-saving aid to vulnerable children and families around the world, and works to help end world hunger. We package and ship meals to feed people in need through community-supported meal packaging programs. Since we were founded in 1998, we have provided over 150 million meals to 51 countries.
Based in Raleigh, N.C., we operate meal-packaging programs at 19 cities in the U.S. and in South Africa, Malaysia, Italy and the Philippines.
In just under two hours, a group of 30 to 40 volunteers can package 10,000 nutrient-rich meals for the undernourished globally. We also educate volunteers and inspire them to help end global hunger through local action.
Chessney Pullen, Stop Hunger Now, +1 (757) 469-7045, [email protected]
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