Ready to Stop Hunger
It was quite amazing to be part of a step, an important one, to tackling world hunger. In our second shift there were about 100 volunteers ranging from all ages and all capabilities. After some basic training on the 5 key jobs: funnel captain, soy scooper, vitamin deployer, veggie scooper, rice scooper and runner, we got to work. Around our table there were 4 adults and 4 kids. Our 3 were immediately designated the vitamin deployers and runners taking the packaged bins to the weighing and sealing table. It didn’t take long before one of the kids realized our bottleneck was getting the bins back from the slower precision table of making sure the food weighed enough. On her own, she created her own job, the searcher, finding empty bins and bringing them back. After that we were cranking!
All the food donations, talks and images on TV could not have made as big an impression on the kids, as the physical scooping and packing of packets of food. There was a gong sound every time a box was filled, which amounted to feeding some 1000 kids. There was a lot of hooping and hollering when that gong went off. We packaged over 21 000 meals and between the 2 shifts, surpassed the event goal of packaging 50 000 meals.
The stated goal of Stop Hunger Now is to eliminate the very need for this program by breaking the cycle of poverty. The meals go to schools, because if no other reason than to make sure their child gets fed, parents have an incentive to get their children to school. It felt good to be part of an important step to accomplishing that goal.
Truck Packed and Loaded and Ready to Go