Last Saturday, my family, cousins, Uncle, Aunty, and I went to our local church to help pack 30,000 meal kits for the hungry. We worked with Stop Hunger Now, a company whose mission is to end world hunger. Here are some surprising facts:

1. Approximately 795 million people in the world are chronically malnourished.
2. One in every nine people on our planet go to bed hungry each night.
3. Hunger kills more people each year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
4. The vast majority of hungry people, 780 out of 795 million people, live in developing countries
5. Nearly 50 percent of people living in extreme poverty are 18 years old or younger.The poorest 20 percent of the world’s children are about twice as likely as the richest 20 percent to be stunted by poor nutrition and to die before their fifth birthday.
6. 66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone.

It was very fun because of the process (especially the funnel!). The funny thing is that the hosts only brought 230 shower caps (for sanitary reasons), but there were actually around 275 people! Luckily there were some stations that didn’t require shower caps.   Here’s how the process goes:     Step………

1. Go to a station with a funnel.
2. Grab a plastic bag and put a vitamins packet inside.
3. Put the plastic bag under the funnel (no leaks).
4. Fill a tea mug to the top with soy mix.
5. Pour that in the funnel.
6.  Repeat steps 4-5 except exchange the soy mix with rice and dried vegetables. The dried vegetables look like Fruity Pebbles (L.O.L)!!!
7. Complete steps 2-6 until you have a full basket (there are baskets on the table for the kits to be put in).
8. Yell runner as loud as you can for someone to come by and take your full basket.
9. Complete steps 2-9 again until the event is over!

At the end, there was a tasting station were you could actually taste the meal. Our goal was 30,000 and surprisingly, we made 28,000. The event was only 2 hours, so 28,000 was a great effort! Every time we reached one thousand, someone would hit the gong and we would all celebrate. 1000 is a very big number and that makes me feel I accomplished something. BONG. BONG. BONG. BONG. BONG. BONG. BONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!  A last thought: A lot of people take food for granted and hungry people take food as a gift. Next time you eat, you should be grateful for your food.