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Volunteers packaged 22,254 meals during the
Stop Hunger Now event. |
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11/2/12Randolph-Macon College and Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church co-hosted Stop Hunger Now (SHN) on October 28, 2012 in the Brock Sports and Recreation Center. More than 70 volunteers teamed up to package 22,254 meals to support school feeding programs and international crisis relief. R-MC’s
Service Fellows Program led the fundraising effort for the event and received support from the
Leadership Fellows,
Campus Ministries Council, Duncan Memorial, Inter-Fraternity Council, and the
Panhellenic Council.
R-MC’s
SERVE (Students Engaged in Responsible Volunteer Experiences) program raised $5,525, and volunteers for the packaging event included students and their families, faculty, staff, and Ashland residents. Volunteers bagged, packaged and transported the meals in less than two hours.
“This event really showed me how working together and relying on one another can make a simple task of packaging food extremely fun,” says
Megan Jackson ’14, executive director of Service Fellows. “Together, we really did make a difference.”
Caroline Rhodes ’15, a Service Fellow, helped raise funds for the event.
“Global hunger and poverty are issues we need to, and can, address,” says Rhodes. “I worked with local businesses and churches, and I was amazed at the level of involvement and excitement—from small churches to large corporations. I can't wait to see how much this event grows, and I look forward to our next packaging event.”
“What's fun about SHN is sending food to people who need it,” says Jayme Watkins, coordinator of co-curricular programs. “The food is donated to educational institutions, so the children go to school to be fed and gain an education. Stop Hunger Now is a real investment in humanity.”
Some last-minute fundraising illustrated the power of R-MC’s close-knit community.
“The day before the packaging event, we realized that we were only $250 away from being able to package 20,000 meals,” says Watkins. “R-MC Chaplain Darrell Headrick sent an e-mail to faculty and staff asking for donations to help us meet our goal. Faculty and staff came through and within an hour $775 had been raised!”
In 2011-12, R-MC students collectively amassed over 10,000 volunteer hours. Students in Fraternity and Sorority Life contributed more than 5,000 hours of collective service to the community, collected 550 pounds of canned food, donated 35 school-supply baskets, and donated $9,388.74 to various organizations. In addition, $30,000 was raised and donated to the American Cancer Society from the annual Relay for Life. The SERVE program, in the Office of Student Life, is an integral part of Randolph-Macon’s Leadership and Service initiatives.