Volunteers join together to help end world hunger
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Hundreds of thousands of meals are being packed up and shipped off to help feed people overseas who need it the most.
Hundreds of people in Hampton Township took time out of their Saturday to join an international movement.
Volunteers are putting a combination of rice, soy, vegetables, and vitamins into small packets. They'll seal the products up, put a label on them, put food into a box, and they're ready to ship overseas for those who need it most.
"We're just here to help however we can, if there's a need we'll create something to meet it," Nick DiMare said. DiMare is affiliated with Rise Against Hunger.
600 volunteers, piled into Allison Park Church over two days, packaging more than 300,000 boxes of meals for people facing hunger across the world.
Rise Against Hunger and Allison Park Church partnered to make a difference.
"Today it starts with a meal. These meals will make a direct impact, an immediate impact, and then allow us to step foot into these countries to create pathways for us. To build good relationships, build trust to teach sustainability," DiMare added.
The group says more than 720 million people in the world do not have the nutrients to live a healthy life. That means about one in 10 people goes to bed hungry each night.
As prices keep going up and global shipping is slow, these groups feel it's up to them to lend a hand by packing rice, soy, vegetables, and vitamins to send off.
"I think everybody deep down has the desire for their life to matter and make an impact. A lot of food banks provide canned goods, it's junk food so it's something but it's not healthy, it's not nutritious. This has protein, rice, soy, vegetables, and a bunch of ingredients in it. To be able to provide people with a complete meal I think takes it above and beyond," Kyler Sederwall said. Sederwall works with Network of Hope, a local nonprofit.
Since 2016, the groups have partnered to now pack over 1 million meals to send off to those in need. Ending hunger is a battle they said they are committed to fighting and will continue to do so for years to come.
Rise Against Hunger said they have these types of events on a daily basis around the country.
