By Richard Kaufman
According to the Food And Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, over 800 million people around the world suffer from hunger and don’t get the food they need to be healthy. The Greenwich Country Day School community has been doing its part to help those who are less fortunate.
The school held its fifth meal packing event of the year last Friday, in conjunction with Rise Against Hunger, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that aims to provide food and other aid for the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Parents of GCDS students, each outfitted with hairnets and measuring cups, huddled over tables in an assembly-line fashion in the school’s dining hall to prepare and package roughly 10,000 meals in 90 minutes, to be shipped to places like schools, hospitals and orphanages in countries such as Haiti, Dominican Republic, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Madagascar and Eswatini. The meals will likely be shipped out in January.
Each meal contains a vitamin packet holding 23 essential vitamins and nutrients, rice, soy protein powder, dehydrated vegetables and flavoring mix. The vitamins are donated by Kraft Heinz, and Rise Against Hunger provides everything else.
Last year, Rise Against Hunger, across it’s 25 domestic warehouses and five international locations, provided 72 million meals to those need. This year alone, GCDS has prepared 162,000 meals over its events, which included faculty and staff, alumni, current students and parents.
“GCDS has been an amazing partner this year,” said Rob Whitaker, Community Engagement Coordinator for Rise Against Hunger. “It really is amazing to see people come together and work as a team to achieve something that is tangible. They can see at the end that we’ve created this many meals with our own hands, and that’s going to provide this many people with a hot meal for the day. To see people come together, especially during this time of year, it’s really warming, and it’s the reason why I do this.”
Music was blaring throughout the dining hall, and applause erupted each time a new meal milestone was reached. Whitaker rang a gong and shouted out the current number of meals made.
Christine Lavin, a parent volunteer, said giving back and helping others is the norm in Greenwich and GCDS. She said it’s “humbling” to help prepare meals for those who need them.
“This is what happens quite often here. This is something that I think is quite natural for our community to do,” she said. “It’s well organized, there’s a purpose, everyone gives a part of their time to make something bigger happen. We know what the impact can be, so that connects us to something bigger.”
Kristina Loverro, another volunteer, said she wanted to help after her child participated in a meal-packing event before Thanksgiving. “This is so satisfying. It’s great because we got to hear our kids talk so much about it. I thought, ‘Oh, I want to do that.’ I think a lot of us felt that way. How do we get involved?” Loverro said. “We’re super fortunate here. To know that you’re helping others far away is great, especially this time of year.”
The theme for this year’s October walkathon and fundraiser at GCDS was helping those who suffer from hunger. Jen Donnalley, Community Service Coordinator for GCDS, helped choose Rise Against Hunger as a partner.
“Rise Against Hunger has a goal of putting themselves out of business by the year 2030,” Donnalley said. “That says it all. Their goal is to not be needed.”
Donnalley said she feels lucky to work at a school that values and supports giving back to others.
“It’s an incredible place to work where you have not only administration that wants to have our kids experience what it’s like to make the world a better place, but you have the most incredibly supportive parent body, who not only want their kids to be in a place that values this, but they actually want to jump in and do it themselves,” she said.
For more information on Rise Against Hunger and how to host a meal-packing event, go to riseagainsthunger.org.
