AUSTIN, Texas — Nearly 700 Austin volunteers packed 186,900 meals as a part of 9/11 Day’s Honor Through Action campaign on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
The 9/11 Day organization has been commemorating the anniversary of the attacks with Honor Through Actions events since 2016, but today’s event at the Palmer Events Center was the first held in Austin.
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Julie Dye, the Austin team lead with 9/11 Day, says serving the community is a way to channel the same unity many Americans felt in the wake of the tragedy 25 years ago.
“The stories that came out of that, of hope and resilience, were just amazing,” said Dye. “And that’s the exact reason that the organization was started: to be able to capture that. And let’s take back this day and not make it such a sad day, but make it a really a day of hope and helping our community.”
Volunteers celebrate the packing of 186,900 meals at the Palmer Events Center Photo: CBS Austin/Audrey Wong)
Local volunteers packed meals as part of a nationwide movement.
“Not only here, but in 50 cities across America, we’re packing over 20 million meals today,” said Andrew Martin with Kids Around the World, a nonprofit that helped coordinate the event with 9/11 Day.
The meals packed in Austin will be donated to Central Texas Food Bank (CTFB), with serves over 600,00 food insecure Central Texans annually.
“Right here in Austin, there’s over 200,000 people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from, and over 60,000 of those people are kids,” said Sari Vatske, President and CEO of CTFB.
Although the event was Austin’s first year participating in Honor Through Action, Dye hopes it won’t be the last.
“We’re very excited that we will probably be back next year,” she said. “It was sort of a trial run, but things have gone really well and we’ve had an amazing volunteer group come and help, so hopefully we’ll be asking for more volunteers next year.”
Organizers say they look forward to serving each year to make sure the nation will never forget.
“That was a day that shook a lot of people, but it brought the country together in a really special way,” said Martin. “If we hold onto that, we can bring that back every year.”