On December 22, the Patel family of Redwood City, Calif., packaged their 1 millionth meal with the nonprofit Rise Against Hunger, a goal the family has been working toward since 2016.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Dec. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- On December 22, 2024, the Patels, a local Bay Area family, reached an impactful milestone eight years in the making: 1 million meals packaged with nonprofit Rise Against Hunger to help address global hunger. This meaningful achievement occurred at a meal packaging event at Sandpiper Community Center in Redwood City from 10 a.m. to noon that day.
Jay, Nimisha, Rohan and Shivani Patel have been working toward this goal for eight years, hosting meal packaging events with Rise Against Hunger that engage the Bay Area community in packaging meals consisting of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and vitamins for distribution to people facing hunger worldwide. The family's goal originated in 2016 when Rohan Patel, who was a high school student and Eagle Scout at the time, volunteered at Rise Against Hunger's Northern California location. Inspired to get involved further, his family then decided to package 75,000 meals for Rohan's Eagle Scout Service Project. After reaching that goal, the Patel family increased the goal to 1 million meals packaged by 2030. With the event on December 22, the Patel family reached this milestone more than five years earlier than planned.
The Patels have called this eight-year service project the "Unite Our Community" campaign with a focus on bringing together community members from all walks of life for the common goal of helping to end world hunger. Including the December 22 event, the family has hosted 55 meal packaging events with 3,000 volunteers, including local Boys and Girls Scout troops, religious groups, Rotary Clubs and other civic organizations, corporations, foundations, and the broader Bay Area community. The Patel family worked with Rise Against Hunger to even host socially distanced events with COVID-19 safety measures in 2020.
"The Patel family is deeply grateful and blessed to 'unite our community' of family and friends," said Jay Patel. "We are creating hope, extending a hand to those in need and showing the world that we can achieve something extraordinary when we come together. We are honored to be on this journey with our multi-generational community, helping to change lives and continuing to make an impact felt far beyond today."
With about 733 million people currently facing hunger according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the 1 million meals packaged by the Patel family have addressed this critical issue by providing over 4,600 people with consistent access to nutritious food. Rise Against Hunger meals are distributed in schools, health clinics and communities worldwide to meet immediate nutritional needs of those facing hunger. In recent years, meals packaged by the Patels and local volunteers have been shipped to the Philippines, Vietnam, Ukraine, Somalia and more.
At the meal packaging event on December 22, 2024, the Patel family packaged 20,000 meals — and reached 1 million total meals with Rise Against Hunger — alongside 70 local volunteers.
Jay Patel, the family's father and husband, is available for interviews about the 1-million-meal milestone. Please contact Hannah Payne, Rise Against Hunger Public Relations Manager, at [email protected] to schedule. A media kit with photos from the family's events over the years and more information about Rise Against Hunger is also available here.
About Rise Against Hunger
Rise Against Hunger, an international humanitarian organization, is growing a global movement to end hunger by nourishing lives, empowering communities and responding to emergencies. Through a global network based in the U.S. and with six international offices, the organization provides volunteer-packaged meals and other assistance for people facing hunger today. Rise Against Hunger has facilitated volunteer packaging of more than 600 million meals to be distributed to countries around the world. In addition to providing immediate nourishment, the organization works with local leaders to implement sustainable agriculture and income-generating projects that support long-term solutions to food security and empower communities to thrive. To learn more about Rise Against Hunger's efforts to end hunger worldwide, please visit www.riseagainsthunger.org.
Media Contact
Hannah Payne, Rise Against Hunger, 1 (919) 839-0689, [email protected], https://www.riseagainsthunger.org/
SOURCE Rise Against Hunger
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