Stop Hunger Now Event Packages Meals for Those in Need

Adults and teens alike bob their heads to “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz, forming a sea of voices and hairnets in the cafeteria.

The crowd erupts in hoots and hollers as a gong is struck.

The participants of the Stop Hunger Now event had just packaged another 1,000 meals for the hungry in Mozambique.

In total, the 60-something volunteers would package 10,152 meals in a couple of hours.

On a Friday afternoon, members of Cambridge’s Interact Club gathered in the school’s cafeteria to participate in the public service event, led by the Atlanta chapter of Stop Hunger Now, an international hunger relief non-profit organization.

Currently, 795 million are hungry around the world according to the site of the United Nations World Food Program. That means approximately one out of nine people on Earth do not get the food they need.

Stop Hunger Now’s goal is to end hunger worldwide by 2030.

The school took part in reaching this goal, packaging meals at the Stop Hunger Now event through an assembly line process.

Gloved volunteers stood at long tables scooping vitamin and mineral packets, soy protein, bright orange dehydrated vegetables and rice into yellow funnels, sending all the items into bags. These bags were then handed over to another group that weighed and sealed them, put them into boxes and placed into a truck for shipment.

“Most of you are in school, so you’re learning,” said Stop Hunger Now Program Coordinator Dan Hatcher when talking to the volunteers. “But all over the world we have children drop out of school every single day so they can work, so they can beg, so they can dig through trash to do anything except learn so that they can earn money or find food for themselves and for their families.”

Stop Hunger Now sends most of their packaged meals to school-feeding programs, causing a dramatic increase in the attendance at the schools.

“You are helping today to build up a generation of leaders within Mozambique. That is what you are doing; you are empowering the future leaders of Mozambique,” said Hatcher.

Seniors Alex Duncan and Gina Morales, who participated in the Stop Hunger Now event, said they were inspired.

Morales said she found the positive energy of the environment infectious and she learned the importance of taking nothing for granted, including three meals a day.

Duncan volunteered for this event for the second year in a row.

“I thought it was so fun,” Duncan said. “The fact that we made 10,000 meals was so incredible. I love the idea that I can help people that can’t get help in their own country.”

Cady Gray-Murray is the fundraiser for the YMCA who coordinated this specific project. She worked with the international service organization Rotary International to bring this event to life.

Gray-Murray said she enjoyed having adults and teens working together to make an impact.

She encourages all people to partake in charitable opportunities like this one because these events feed people while motivating and educating volunteers. 

“It only takes a small time, but it makes a big difference,” Gray-Murray said.

President of the Milton Windward Rotary Club Trey Tompkins said he enjoys working on projects with high schoolers. The Rotary Club notifies the Interact Club here at school when there is a charity event they need help with.

“It’s a lot of fun. The people here are the ones who want to work, are generous and are good people,” said Tompkins. “I have one high schooler and two in college. I know teens have their good days and their bad days, but during projects like these, I get to see them on their best days.”