More than 250 people volunteered this year for the Rise Against Hunger meal packing event at Delphos St. Johns High School.
Groups packed 35,000 meal bags full of rice, soy meal, and vegetables. And then those bags were then measured, sealed and then packed into boxes. Those who participate every year say it gives them great joy to know they are helping others.
“I’m important to me because there’s a lot of people in our world that need help and just to come out here and actively participate in that is very important to me,” said Abby Bonifas, a Rise Against Hunger volunteer.
“We’re blessed in this country to have food, to have shelter and to give outside of ourselves is the greatest legacy we could live,” said Ellen Ditto, Rise Against Hunger host in Delphos.
Rise Against Hunger is an international non-profit that sends packaged food and other items to people in developing countries. Each bag that is sent will feed a family of six this will feed a family for six nights. Once the bags have been delivered, volunteers have the opportunity to follow up and see just how many people they've helped.
“On our website, they can click that area and see how many meals went to that area and follow that vision that we have for that area as well,” said Thomas Russell, Rise Against Hunger community engagement manager.
Every year Rise Against Hunger receives an outpour of help from the Delphos community and Russell says he couldn't have been any more appreciative.
“There’s no way that we could simply do this on our own so partnering with the Carpenter’s Ministry, to other churches, organizations and civic groups, Rotaries, really puts a real big dent in that thing that we call world hunger,” he said.
