Photo By Sgt. Grace L. Waladkewics | Volunteers place completed meal packages into boxes for shipment during a Stop Hunger...... read more read more
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MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. - Fifteen Cherry Point Marines and Sailors joined approximately 75 rotary club and community members to package meals during a baseball game at Big Rock Stadium in Morehead City, N.C., June 26.
The volunteers packed, weighed and sealed bags of food to help feed more than 10,000 undernourished people through a program called Stop Hunger Now. All hands worked diligently to ensure all bags were properly filled, weighed and packaged.
Stop Hunger Now is a meal packaging program driven by community members and volunteers who package dehydrated, highly nutritious meals of rice, soy, vegetables, flavorings and essential vitamins and minerals to send to developing countries around the world.
“Each bag of food is enough to feed six people,” said Chris Singleton, the eastern North Carolina program manager of Stop Hunger Now. “The volunteers put together enough packages to feed 10,158, and they did it in just 1 hour and 17 minutes, which is amazing.”
The completed meals are shipped to clinics, schools, orphanages and areas where crisis relief efforts are needed.
“I’m blessed twice knowing that hungry people will eat, and by seeing good people excited, having good fellowship and working together to stop hunger,” said Singleton. “It is really beneficial for both the service members and the community when they come together for a good cause like this. Both have lots to offer each other and it offers both an opportunity to meet people and really experience the community they all live in.”
Passersby could hear the sounds of volunteers speaking encouraging words to one another and calling for supplies from every part of the tent, the soft patter of dried grains being poured, the thud of storage bins filled with packaged meals hitting the ground and the sound of cheers as a brass gong rang through the tent, marking every 1,000 meals.
The primary goal of the meal-packaging program is to support feeding programs in third-world countries, said Singleton.
“We are all a part of the community,” said Sgt. Bryan Brezina, an automotive organizational mechanic with Combat Logistics Company 21. “We get the benefits of knowing we helped someone in need by volunteering our time.”
“Being involved in Stop Hunger Now, helping to feed so many people, is a truly rewarding experience for me,” said Brezina. “All it took was a little more than an hour of us working together to accomplish something so big. I’m really glad I came out to volunteer for this event, and I am looking forward to the next time I can be involved.”
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.02.2014 13:00 |
| Story ID: | 135125 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, US |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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