Meals for Kids: Rotary Club of Bedford’s Fourth Meal-Packing Event on April 8

Breaking the poverty cycle at the 2016 Bedford Rotary Meal Packing initiative – Courtesy image (c) all rights reserved

Submitted by the Rotary Club of Bedford

On Saturday, April 8, more than 300 people will gather on the Bedford campus of Middlesex Community College to package 60,000 nutritious meals that will be shipped to needy schoolchildren around the world. The program, known as Meals for Kids, is a combined effort by The Rotary Club of Bedford, their partner Rise Against Hunger, and hundreds of Bedford volunteers all working toward the shared goal of ending world hunger in our lifetime.

The program is surprisingly simple:

  • Rise Against Hunger bulk-purchases the raw materials consisting of rice, soy, vegetables, and 23 essential vitamins and minerals and delivers them to the packaging site along with the equipment needed to put everything together.
  • Rotary raises $0.29 per meal, finds a place to do the work, and collects the hundreds of volunteers needed to make it all happen.
  • Rise Against Hunger then takes over again and ships the meals to schools around the world.

So why are we doing this? Well, did you know farmers around the world grow enough food to feed everyone? Yup, all 7.5 billion of us. Assuming this to be true, then why are people starving? The answer lies in two simple facts:

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  • Many people cannot afford the food
  • The rest of us cannot get this abundance of food to those who really need it.

But the Rotary Club of Bedford isn’t undertaking this effort alone, not by a long shot.

  • Internationally they have teamed up with Rise Against Hunger (formerly known as Stop Hunger Now) an international hunger relief organization that distributes food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable people.
  • Significant support has come from Middlesex Community College who for the past few years has generously opened their doors to the meal packaging event.
  • Financial support has come from local corporations such as BAE, Anika Therapeutics, and others. In addition, several local restaurants like Flatbread Pizza and Ken’s NY Deli & Brick oven Pizzeria have held fundraisers for the event.

Finally, there are the hundreds of volunteers, from 4 to 94-years-old, from church groups, local businesses, scout troops, other Rotary Clubs, school groups, and many individuals and families like yours who come together each year to help those less fortunate.

In the four years that the Rotary Club of Bedford has been doing these meal-packing events, over 257,000 meals have been packaged, shipped, and consumed by children who desperately need this nourishment. This year’s effort will package another 60,000 meals. The goal is to make a difference, and it will!

For information and to register as an individual or as a team, visit www.bedfordmarotary.org/mealsforkids.cfm.

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