BRICK – The Brick Clergy Association recently hosted a volunteer event where about 100 members from seven houses of worship from the township packaged 10,000 meals in two hours for an international hunger relief non-profit organization.
Rise Against Hunger, formed in 1998 as Stop Hunger Now, ships the meals to some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. The organization is a growing global movement to end hunger by empowering communities, nourishing lives and responding to emergencies. They began the meal packaging program in 2005.
The volunteers, who assembled at Saint Thomas Lutheran Church, first had to sanitize their hands, then don hairnets and rubber gloves before putting together a package consisting of a ladle of rice, a scoop of soy, dehydrated vegetables and a packet of vitamins and minerals, which was then weighed, sealed, labeled and boxed for shipping. Each packet contains six meals.
There was a job for every volunteer’s ability: runners transferred the food from station to station, replenishers wrangled 50-pound bags of rice and 25-pound bags of soy to the stations, and the food was carefully measured and then weighed by those who preferred to sit.
Afterwards, the packets were stacked into cardboard boxes and loaded onto a truck which would bring the meals to a warehouse outside of Philadelphia.
Rise Against Hunger part-time employee Donald English, who drove the truck and organized the volunteers, said all the meals go overseas to some 38-39 different countries a year. He said 285,000 meals were recently sent to Zambia, Southern Africa.
The Rise Against Hunger truck is seen parked outside Saint Thomas Lutheran Church in Brick Township. (Photo by Judy Smestad-Nunn)
Some two million meals were sent out in one month to other African countries, and to the Philippines, English added.
“We are not a religious organization – we work with churches, synagogues, clubs, schools, businesses – for each event like this, each group raises money to cover the cost of the event,” English said.
Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church member Abigail Johnson,16, attended the event with her mother, Rhonda Ryder. This was Abigail’s second time attending the food packaging event.
Rise Against Hunger employee Donald English instructs volunteers about their assumed work stations. (Photo by Judy Smestad-Nunn)
The first time was at Saint Dominic Roman Catholic Church. She said she could count the event towards her service hours.
It was her mother’s first time. “One of my daughter’s friends invited me – it’s for a good cause, and if children can influence adults, that’s a good thing.”
Pastor Judy Anderson of Saint Thomas Lutheran Church, who co-pastors with her husband John, said that about 10 members of their congregation were at the event.
“Feeding the ministry is important to us – we have a very active food pantry, so for us to feed – it then takes it out to the world, because we don’t know where it’s going to go, so we get to do it a little broader,” she added.
The completed food packets are stacked and ready for distribution the assembled packets look upon completion. (Photo by Judy Smestad-Nunn)
Rabbi Richard Rubin of Temple Beth Or said his congregation has been participating in the social action project for about a dozen years.
The Brick Clergy Association congregations who were present included Brick Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Church of Laurelton, Living Faith Bible Church, Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church, Saint Thomas Lutheran Church, Temple Beth Or and Visitation Roman Catholic Church.
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