By Chris Spangler
Volunteers packed more than 53,000 meals to help feed the world’s hungry when they gathered at Fort Atkinson High School on Sunday.
Organized by the school’s Interact Club, an offshoot of the Rotary Club, the Kids Against Hunger event featured 163 volunteers packaging 53,138 rice-and-veggie meals that will go to Nicaragua, Philippines, Poland or Ukraine.
Volunteers, working in a two-hour morning and/or afternoon shift, packed 6,000 meals in the just the first half-hour of the 9 a.m. start.
They included members of the Fort Atkinson and Lake Mills high school Interact clubs, as well as Rotary clubs from Fort Atkinson, Jefferson, and Lake Mills. Altogether, they contributed 383 hours of their time.
Also among the volunteers were Fort Atkinson High School faculty members, family and friends; Fort Atkinson High School’s National Honor Society, Student Government and U.S. Government class members, and employees of the Fort Community Credit Union.
The project was funded by the Fort Atkinson, Jefferson, Lake Mills, and Milton Rotary and Interact clubs, along with a $5,000 grant from Rotary’s District 6250.
Leading the effort was Kids Against Hunger Rock County Rotary Inc., which has been helping feed the hungry since 2008. It is made up of the Janesville Noon and Morning, Beloit and Edgerton Rotary clubs.
Sunday marked the second time the Fort Atkinson Interact and Rotary clubs have held a Kids Against Hunger food packing. The first was in 2018 when volunteers packaged 50,000 meals.
Kids Against Hunger was founded by Richard Proudfit, who in 1974 traveled to Honduras as a volunteer following a devastating hurricane there. Affected by the starving children he saw there, he committed his life and financial resources toward stopping world hunger.
Using his knowledge in manufacturing and distribution, Proudfit tapped his corporate world colleagues for help.
According to the organization’s website, “he enlisted the resources of leading food scientists to develop a highly nutritious meal – rich in protein and fortified with vitamins and minerals – that, when boiled with water, provides nourishment for starving children. His tireless relationship building resulted in a worldwide network of organizations that can successfully distribute the food under the worst conditions.”
Volunteers in the U.S. and Canada have packed meals to feed starving children and their families in 70 countries through partnerships with humanitarian organizations worldwide.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about 821 million people in the world, or one in nine, face hunger and one in three suffered from some form of malnutrition in 2021.
It also reports that every 10 seconds, a child dies (nearly 16,000 every day) due to hunger and related causes. In addition, 16.2 million children under 18 in the United States live in households where they are unable to consistently access enough nutritious food necessary for a healthy life.
Photos from the packing event on Sunday follow.
Jennifer Saucedo, at left, joins Fort Atkinson High School Interact Club members as they seal meal bags Sunday. Saucedo, Lake Mills, is a teacher at Fort Atkinson’s Rockwell Elementary School.
Four photos above: Members of Fort Atkinson High School’s Interact Club fill meal bags with rice, veggies and nutrients during the Kids Against Hunger event Sunday. The club hosted the effort.
Emma Bare, whose mother, Margaret Bare, is a Fort Atkinson Rotarian, fills a shipping box with 36 prepackaged meals.
A member of one of several groups involved in Sunday’s food packaging event, at center, explains the process at the start of the morning shift. Members of Kids Against Hunger Rock County Rotary, Inc. coordinated Sunday’s meal packaging in Fort Atkinson. The group is made up of the Janesville Noon and Morning, Beloit and Edgerton Rotary clubs.
Dressed in green and gold, many members of the Jefferson Rotary Club pack Kids Against Hunger meals in advance of Sunday’s Green Bay Packers game.
Hannah Behling, at right, aided by fellow Fort Atkinson Interact Club members, pours rice into a meal packet.
Fort Atkinson Rotary Club and family members package Kids Against Hunger meals.
Two photos above: Learning to volunteer at an early age, children help package meals at the Kids Against Hunger event Sunday.
Two photos above: Members of the Lake Mills High School Interact Club offer through their smiles an indication that they enjoy their work. The volunteers were among those packing meals Sunday.
Chris Spangler photos.
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