ROANOKE, Va. – On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, thousands across the nation are honoring the legacy of the civil rights leader through acts of service. In Roanoke, a group of local volunteers is coming together to make a global impact by packaging tens of thousands of meals for those facing hunger worldwide.
Allie Kier, upper and middle school director at North Cross School, emphasized the importance of the day, stating, “Even though it’s technically a day off from school, it’s a day on for service.”
More than 100 community members and students rolled up their sleeves to pack over 20,000 meals for those in need, all in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a nationwide day of service.
Sheila Russ, partnership manager for Rise Against Hunger, highlighted the significance of the event. “It’s a great opportunity for families to be able to come and do this together. But Martin Luther King said on multiple occasions in a number of different ways that we as a human race have the resources and the ability to end hunger and poverty, and there’s no reason that anyone should have an empty table.”
North Cross School has partnered with Rise Against Hunger, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting hunger in the most food-insecure regions across the globe. Today, they were packing meals consisting of rice, soy, vegetables, and essential vitamins.
Margaret Bass, a ninth grader at North Cross School, reflected on the day’s efforts: “People who are here today probably have all the things we need. We probably have all the meals already at our houses and stuff, but what we are doing here today are for the people that don’t have that luxury.”
This meal-packing event was just one of many across the country. Ray Buchanan, founder of Rise Against Hunger, shared the broader impact of their efforts. “From Richmond to Roanoke, we will package over 100,000 meals, and when you multiply that by the 19 or 20 locations, we have about a million or a million and a half meals being packaged today and will go to kids that 9 out of 10 of them that eat the meals being packed today that’s the only meal they’ll get that day.”
In a month, these meals will be shipped overseas. Russ explained, “We currently work in 38 different countries around the globe, and we work in communities that are called last-mile communities. They are the places in the world that are defined by the World Food Organization as the most food-insecure areas.”