As Thanksgiving approaches and people turn their attention to family gatherings and meals, it’s also a time many people look for was to connect with their community and those in need.
On Saturday, the Spruce Pine Rotary Club and Higgins United Methodist Church of Burnsville teamed up to sponsor a Rise Against Hunger meal packaging event. About 80 volunteers showed up at Harris Middle School to assemble food packets.
Between the two entities $10,000 was raised to package 20,188 meals.
“This was our seventh time of partnering with the Rotary Club of Spruce Pine on this event,” said Pierce Bingham, missions chair for Higgins UMC.
“It’s a funny story,” said Bingham. “We both (UMC and Rotary) have a passion for helping people. We were both raising money for a Rise Against Hunger event. We were both scheduled for an event on the same day. It seemed silly to have two events going on practically in each other’s back yard. I’m a Rotarian too, so I approached Marvin Walker about combining our efforts. It’s been a great partnership.”
Over the years Higgins UMC and Spruce Pine Rotary have raised a lot of money and packaged a lot of meals.
“It’s a real community effort,” said Bingham, noting that last year they did not hold the event due to COVID. “This year was smaller than our 2019 event due to COVID, but it was good. Our best year we packaged about 90,000 meals.”
Higgins UMC has been participating in the event for 15 years and Bingham said it’s a family affair.
“There is a job for everyone,” said Higgins. “My first year I thought wow – there was a child who could barely walk carrying trays to a 90-year-old great-grandmother sealing bags… It really is a generational event. Everyone is energetic and there is a real sense of community. It’s a great partnership.”
According to Rise Against Hunger, 821 million people in the world don’t get the food they need to live a healthy life. One in three people worldwide are adversely affected by vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Rise Against Hunger meals, packed by volunteers, are designed to provide a comprehensive array of micro-nutrients and include enriched rice, soy protein, dried vegetables and 20 essential vitamins and nutrients.
“The last two events the meals we packed went to Haiti, before that Africa,” said Spruce Pine Rotary Club President Mavin Walker. “They will send us a photograph in a few months of kids eating with our event label from Saturday in the picture.”
About Rise Against Hunger
While serving as a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam War, Ray Buchanan, recognized that accomplishing a mission required ‘commitment to something larger than yourself.” Later as a United Methodist minister, Buchanan embraced the vison of a world without hunger and co-founded Stop Hunger Now in 1998 with donor support from John Hewitt. Stop Hunger Now rebranded to become Rise Against Hunger in 2019, an organization that focuses its feeding programs in areas where they can have a real impact expand its hunger-fighting programs beyond meal packaging and distribution.
Today in communities around the United States there are communities coming together to package meals for families in need.
While organizations are not sure where the meals will go, Spruce Pine Rotarian George Nero knows the food will make a difference.
“It costs about 35 cents to package a meal,” said Nero, a bargain to feed a child or family in need.