Two years ago, when Stephanie and Teresa Neves were both
students at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, they
began organizing Stop Hunger Now meal packaging events at the
school. At the first event, more than 75 students packaged
about 25,000 meals. The next year, about 200 students
produced more than 35,000 meals. The meals went to feed
people in eastern Ukraine, Cambodia and Haiti.
Teresa graduated last year and is now a college freshman, and
Stephanie is a junior at Paul VI. For this year’s event,
Stephanie hopes to match last year’s number – or better
it.
There’s a lot of up-front work prior to the March 11 meal
packaging event. Money is raised to purchase the meal
ingredients, which costs the students about 29 cents a meal.
Their goal this year is to raise $10,210, which will create
35,206 meals.
Stephanie said they started their work to raise students’
awareness of world hunger.
“We wanted to do something at PVI to help people – to make a
difference,” she said.
A Stop Hunger Now meal packaging event is a picture of
efficiency. Several hundred people gather in a large room and
are seated at long tables set up in rows. The people on each
row have a specific job. One row puts rice, soy and
dehydrated vegetables into plastic bags then moves it to the
next row where volunteers will add a flavor packet with
vitamins, then weigh and seal the packages. Those packages
are passed to a table where they are loaded into cardboard
boxes, then on to pallets and moved to waiting trucks. A gong
is rung every 1,000 meals to keep up the level of
excitement.
In two hours, tens of thousands of meals can be prepared for
shipment to hungry people in the United States and around the
world.
Stephanie hopes that the program will continue after she
graduates.
“I want to grow this at PVI and find someone who can continue
it,” she said.
To donate or register for the March 11
event
Go to bit.ly/1S0PdCA.
