January 22, 2014
Food For Thousands Packed in Five Hours
They came from all walks of life and five New Jersey counties to make a difference in the lives of residents in New Jersey. When more than 300 volunteers gathered at The Hope Community Center in Paterson’s Northside district with the goal of packaging 25,000 meals, they found out they were part of an even bigger vision. They were one of seven sites in five states, ME, MA, NJ, PA, and VT involved in Outreach – Kids Care meal packaging events in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At the end of the weekend, 1,400 volunteers collectively assembled 212,346 non-
perishable meals for the residents of their respective states.
The volunteers brought together by Rotary District 7490 quickly got into action and zoomed past their original goal of packaging 25,000 meals for the hungry to complete an incredible 40,002 packages of nutritionally fortified bags of rice and bean meals, each serving six people. The funding for their additional meals came from many sources including five Interact Clubs (the high school level Rotary organization) and a North Haledon Elementary School. “The High Mountain Elementary School students raised $ 1,000. Funding 4,000 meals; they also brought 53 kids to volunteer,” exclaimed Bonnie Sirower of the Rotary.
perishable meals for the residents of their respective states.
The volunteers brought together by Rotary District 7490 quickly got into action and zoomed past their original goal of packaging 25,000 meals for the hungry to complete an incredible 40,002 packages of nutritionally fortified bags of rice and bean meals, each serving six people. The funding for their additional meals came from many sources including five Interact Clubs (the high school level Rotary organization) and a North Haledon Elementary School. “The High Mountain Elementary School students raised $ 1,000. Funding 4,000 meals; they also brought 53 kids to volunteer,” exclaimed Bonnie Sirower of the Rotary.
Both the Paterson event and a similar one in Bergen County sponsored by Calvary United Methodist Church packaged a total of 95,856 meals to be distributed to hungry families in Northern New Jersey by CUMAC, a multi-service agency in Passaic County that provides groceries for over 30,000 food insecure individuals every year, in addition to running multiple programs dedicated to alleviating the root causes of hunger and poverty. Information and future volunteer opportunities can be found on their website www.cumacecho.org.
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The volunteers also learned how they can eradicate hunger in the state. For example, if every New Jerseyan who has enough food gave $ 14.85 each and volunteered 24 minutes in a food relief program annually, we could take care of the 1.25 million people in NJ who are food insecure.
“When 1 out of every 5 children in our state are without sufficient food, we know that we have to fix a broken system,” added Rev. Patricia Bruger, executive director of CUMAC. Both the Paterson and Dumont organizers, and many groups who joined in service that day, plan to host a meal assembly event in 2015. Interested parties can
contact CUMAC at volunteer@cumacecho.org to join a future event.
“When 1 out of every 5 children in our state are without sufficient food, we know that we have to fix a broken system,” added Rev. Patricia Bruger, executive director of CUMAC. Both the Paterson and Dumont organizers, and many groups who joined in service that day, plan to host a meal assembly event in 2015. Interested parties can
contact CUMAC at volunteer@cumacecho.org to join a future event.