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Volunteers from 13 Valley churches to package meals
By LINDA M. LINONIS
boardman
A team of some 160 volunteers from 13 Mahoning Valley churches plans to package 30,000 meals in assembly-line style during a Stop Hunger Now event Saturday at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 119 Stadium Drive.
Ruth Brayer said last year she participated in a mission conference in New Wilmington, Pa., and a meals project was part of the event.
“I thought it was a wonderful idea for Youngstown,” said the Stop Hunger Now project coordinator and chairwoman of the mission committee at Westminster. “It’s a great hands-on project.”
Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger-relief organization. “They have a good track record,” she said, noting that the New Wilmington group was informed when the food arrived in Kenya, Africa.
Brayer explained that each high-protein, dehydrated meal feeds six people. Participants in the assembly-line format each have a specific task — one guides a funnel, another holds the plastic bag for the ingredients, then other volunteers add a package of vitamins and minerals, one cup of soy, one heaping tablespoon of dehydrated vegetables and one cup of white rice. Each meal costs just 25 cents.
Brayer said 12 Youngstown- area Presbyterian churches and St. Charles Borromeo Church in Boardman are involved. They raised $8,000 through various projects to fund the Stop Hunger Now project.
“They know the food will be going to Africa to alleviate the terrible hunger situation,” she said. “They were so willing to participate.”
The church volunteers will work in two shifts — 9 to 11 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with about 80 per shift.
Stop Hunger Now literature states that more than 1 billion people worldwide don’t have enough to eat. In developing countries, nearly 11 million children younger than 5 die of hunger-related causes each year. The project provides meals for schools and orphanages.
Since it was founded in 1998, the organization has provided more than 43 million meals. The website is www.stophungernow.org.