20,000 meals in two hours? With the help of Ms. Scioli, the Stop Hunger Now charity organization and a crowd of enthusiastic Leesville students, hundreds of hungry children across the world could be supplied with healthy, nutritious food for weeks.
The second semester will kick off on Wednesday, Jan. 23, with an exciting and incredibly impactful food-packing event from 3 to 5 p.m. For the first time, Stop Hunger Now’s groundbreaking meal-making assembly line will visit Leesville’s cafeteria to make meals for a plethora of needy schoolchildren in just 120 minutes’ time.
Small groups of students and staff members alike will fill packet after packet with scoops of “rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a flavoring mix including 21 essential vitamins and minerals”, according to the Raleigh-based charity’s website. “Each meal costs only 25 cents…stores easily [and] has a shelf life of five years.”
But not just a few packets. Not just a hundred packets. Not just a thousand packets. No, 20,000 packets—20,000 packets that will be delivered to schools in 75 developing countries to provide young students with hearty, healthy and free food.
As an occasional volunteer at SHN events, I can personally attest that the fast and furious meal-making is, by far, the most thrilling and rewarding community service I’ve ever participated in.
“It really is a grassroots thing,” said Scioli, Leesville social studies teacher and SHN event organizer. “[I was] made aware that a donation had been made [to Stop Hunger Now] and all we needed was the manpower to get all of the meals shipped out.”
So she stepped up and arranged the event, even though that aforementioned manpower is still a concern. As of Thursday, Jan. 10, 71 people have confirmed their attendance on the event Facebook page. However, Scioli is “praying that 100 people will show up.”
“I’m very nervous,” she said, “because…this needs to be done.”
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