wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 377-College students meet million-meal challenge

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

>College students meet million-meal challenge

>Sep. 10, 2008

NOTE: Photographs and video are available at http://umns.umc.org.

>By John Gordon*

RALEIGH, N.C. (UMNS)-Take more than 4,000 students and volunteers, add
tons of rice and soy, then blend well for one day.

Those ingredients made for a record-breaking challenge as students from
eight North Carolina colleges and universities joined together to pack
more than a million meals for hungry people. The food is now en route to
El Salvador, Haiti and India.

Stop Hunger Now (www.stophungernow.org), a Raleigh-based non-profit
organization, held the Aug. 23 challenge on the campuses of North
Carolina State University at Raleigh, the University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill and East Carolina University at Greenville.

"We're really excited to be here and hopefully we can make a big
difference," said Mariana Chuck, a Duke University graduate student. "I
think that people lose sight of what's going on in the world."

The need for food is critical, said the Rev. Ray Buchanan, a United
Methodist minister and founder of Stop Hunger Now.

"World hunger is the biggest obscenity of our age," he said. "Right now,
over 850 million-that's two-thirds of the world's population-goes hungry
every single day."

The students set up funnel stations to fill plastic bags with soy, a
chicken flavoring capsule that contains 21 vitamins, dehydrated
vegetables and rice. Other students weighed, sealed and packed the bags
and loaded the boxes onto trucks.

When mixed with hot water, each bag contains a balanced meal that can
feed six people.

"I didn't realize, like, how many people were hungry in the world," said
Lauren Vinesette, a student and member of the Raleigh Wesley Foundation,
a United Methodist ministry for college students. "This is the highlight
of my day. I think it's pretty cool that we can come together and do
this."

Actor Jesse Metcalfe, best known for his recurring role on the ABC TV
drama "Desperate Housewives," also dropped by to encourage the students.

"Twenty-five-thousand people a day die from hunger-related illnesses,"
Metcalfe said. "There's plenty of food to feed everyone on the planet.
So, you know, why is this not being done?"

Stop Hunger Now began feeding the world's hungry 10 years ago. In that
time, the organization has sent meals to more than 60 countries.

The organization's previous record for a one-day packaging event
involving college students was 300,000 meals.

"We're in the midst of an unprecedented global food crisis," Buchanan
said. "There's been a perfect storm of factors that have come together
that have created a global food crisis that is threatening millions more
people."

Buchanan said an increased demand for beef and chicken in China and
India, combined with ethanol production in the United States, has
increased the demand for corn and driven up prices.  The recent sharp
rise in fuel prices also has increased the cost of providing meals to
developing countries.

The Rev. Steve Hickle, chairman of the board of Stop Hunger Now and
pastor of Fairmont United Methodist Church in Raleigh, said the
University Million Meal Event went a step beyond providing meals to the
hungry. It also helped raise awareness.

"I think at least 4,000 volunteers are all getting a message of hunger
and taking that to heart," Hickle said. "So it's like a whole generation
of people that's been awakened to what they can actually do about world
hunger-to help raise the funds and work with the delivery system that is
in place and really have an impact."

Student Brittany Johnson, another member of the Raleigh Wesley
Foundation, said teamwork helped exceed the 1 million goal by more than
10,000 meals.

"There are so many people here that are just helping, and we get so much
accomplished with everyone working together," she said.

Stop Hunger Now holds similar events, though on a smaller scale, at
churches. With the help of students, churches and other volunteers,
Buchanan believes the organization's goal is attainable.

"The vision of Stop Hunger Now is simply to achieve a world without
hunger," he said. "We can do that-in our lifetime-if all of us simply
will do what we can."

*Gordon is a freelance producer based in Marshall, Texas.

News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470
or newdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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