More than 80 local volunteers were on-hand March 28 at Bethlehem United Methodist Church (BUMC) to assemble 10,000 meals for Rise Against Hunger, an international hunger relief organization. Rise Against Hunger combats hunger by coordinating volunteer-based meal packaging, distributing food and emergency aid, and empowering communities through sustainable agricultural development.
During the meal packing event, volunteers worked in stations to fill plastic pouches with soy, protein packets, dehydrated vegetables and rice, then sealed the packages, placed them in boxes and loaded them on a truck for shipment to Richmond. The boxes of food will be sent out to schools and orphanages in developing countries later this spring along with meals packaged by other volunteer groups.
“The meals packed today will most likely go to the Philippines in May,” said Jeremiah Hurst with Rise Against Hunger.
Each bag of food contains six servings, so local volunteers put together 1692 packages equaling 10,000 meals.
“The meals goes to developing countries, particularly where education is not always a priority for families,” said Carolyn Koontz, a member of BUMC who helped coordinate volunteers for the food packing event. “Parents are encouraged to send their children to school where children will get a meal. It’s a double benefit‚—food plus education.”
The meal packing event was family-oriented with parents, grandparents and children participating. Even younger children had the opportunity to contribute by placing the packages on a grid that counted off the number of bags needed for each box.
Smith Mountain Lake resident Karen Debord remarked that the event was a great opportunity for her 8-year-old granddaughter to be involved in. “My granddaughter was here visiting on spring break. I explained to her what the event was about and she was excited to get involved,” said Debord. “She took the lead at our station filling the bags up with rice and even got to ring the gong to kick things off.”
It only took an hour to package and box up the 10,000 meals—a reflection of the power of teamwork in action.
In 2016, volunteers from BUMC packed 50,000 meals as part of one of the events marking the 50th anniversary of Smith Mountain Lake reaching full pond, noted Koontz.
According to the Rise Against Hunger website, the nonprofit packaged 54.3 million meals in 2024 measuring 2,139 metric tons of food produced/procured and impacting over 9.4 million lives.
On April 11, Rise Against Hunger events will take place locally from 9:30 a.m. – noon at three locations:
Heritage United Methodist Church in LynchburgRedwood United Methodist Church in Rocky MountFirst United Methodist Church in Martinsville
To participate in one of these events, RSVP at www.mountainviewdistrict.org/events/one-in-mission.