Destiny Hosmer – Staff Writer
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A team of student volunteers packaged over 12,000 meals for those in need during the annual Hunger and Homelessness Week.
Over 100 volunteers, the largest volunteer turnout in the past three years, packaged the meals on Thursday. Nov. 17. This year, the meals will be sent to Belize with the help of the Stop Hunger Now organization.
The UAB Leadership and Service Council, an organization led by UAB students who are interested in community service and developing leadership skills, has hosted a Stop Hunger Now meal packaging event for the past three years to provide students with a hands-on opportunity to join the global battle against hunger.
Stop Hunger Now is an organization based in Raleigh, N.C., with a mission to end hunger by providing food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.
Stop Hunger Now distributes meals through feeding programs operated by partner organizations in developing countries that promote education, encourage children to attend school, improve students’ health and nutrition, address gender inequalities, stimulate economic growth, fight child labor and address global issues.
One in three people in developing countries suffers from vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and hunger kills more people each year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, according to Stop Hunger Now’s website.
Although the packaging event is held once annually, the battle to end hunger can be fought by UAB students throughout the year.
According to David Dada, Coordinator of Leadership and Service in the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership, students can do their part in a number of ways on campus.
“[Students] can support organizations like Magic City Harvest right here in Birmingham,” Dada said. “They can also donate to the Food Pantry in the Student Advocacy, Rights and Conduct Office in HSC 303, which supplies free food to any UAB students experiencing financial need and food insecurity. There is also the Donor to Diner organization that allows students to donate meals from their meal plans.”
Magic City Harvest is a local organization that seeks to help end hunger by recovering 1.2 million pounds of excess food from restaurants and grocery stores each year. Donor to Diner, which was founded by senior Supraja Sridhar, is a UAB organization whose aim is to reduce food insecurity among students on campus and has obtained approval for the transferring of meal swipes to benefit needy students. The latter provided over 500 meals to students last month during the “One Meal Initiative” event.
