Rise Against Hunger

On September 8th, 2018, members of KHFSS participated in a food packing event. Organized by Rise Against Hunger, this nonprofit organization that fights starvation and malnutrition in poverty-stricken countries, packs specially formulated meals to be delivered to children in impoverished countries. We packed chicken flavored rice meals consisting of rice, soybean-based protein, vitamin-enriched chicken stock powder, and dehydrated vegetables.

When we got to the event location, the leaders of the event passed out gloves and hairnets to every volunteer. Each table was set up as a meal packing station. On each table were boxes of ingredients for the meal. At exactly 10 AM, meal packing officially began, and we started making the meals, aiming for 50,000. Each person on the station focused on only one task, putting their respective ingredient in the packaging before handing it to the next person in line until the packaging was full, after which it was taken to be weighed, sealed, and then boxed.

With incredible efficiency, we reached the halfway point of the goal in less than two hours, at which point we took a ten minute break and resumed to reach our goal. At the end of the event, we ended up breaking our goal of 50,000 packaged meals to send to poverty-stricken families in North Korea.

Our participation in this event had little relevance to our purpose of bringing awareness to Asian cultures, but it was a new experience for the KHFSS members. This event provided our group with a valuable lesson on how poverty affects the lives of families and children and we left the event feeling more grateful for our own privilege and inspired to continue to do greater work for our community.