~ Submitted by the Rotary Club of Bedford
The Rotary Club of Bedford held its Meals for Kids meal packaging event on Saturday, April 23rd at Bedford High School. This was the first time since 2019 that they were able to host this event. Partnering with international relief organization Rise Against Hunger, Bedford’s Rotarians, corporate sponsors BAE Systems, and local citizens packaged over 10,000 nutritious rice and soy-based meals. This brings the total meals packaged over 8 years to nearly 430,000 meals—well on our way to half a million meals for the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Rise Against Hunger provides the supplies, packaging equipment, and on-the-ground logistics of shipping and distributing the food in the communities where it’s needed. These meals are shipped to hungry school children in some of the poorest developing countries. They provide a daily lunch that allows the children to stay in school for the entire day and more fully address their nutritional and educational needs.
Past president of the Rotary Club of Bedford, Linda Cargiuolo said “It was so inspiring to revive our Meals for Kids project which was on hold due to Covid restrictions, and see the continued enthusiastic support from many of our past supporters and volunteers as well as new friends.
“I was introduced to the folks from Stop Hunger Now, now called Rise Against Hunger, about 9 years ago when they first started up in New England. I invited them to speak at our Rotary Club after taking part in their mini packaging demonstration,” Cargiuolo continued. “We enthusiastically decided to support them and do what was our club’s first meal packaging of 15,000 meals. Since that modest beginning, we have packaged over 420,000 meals and have made many friends along the way.”
Every year, participants rave about how much they enjoyed working together to package the meals. Whole families work side-by-side with neighbors and colleagues to make this happen. Bedford resident and first-time volunteer Melissa Stevens said “My children & I participated in the Rise Against Hunger event for the first time. The event was well organized, rewarding, and FUN! It was incredible seeing so many people from our community getting together to help with this amazing organization. We’re already looking forward to next year!”
This community event of camaraderie, shared effort, and generosity of spirit embodies the Rotary’s mission “to provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace.”
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