More than 800 volunteers will spend this Saturday packing 240,000 meals for the hungry in Haiti.
The Burke Sunrise, Morganton, Valdese and McDowell Rotary clubs organized the event, Operation Sharehouse, which is a program run by Stop Hunger Now, a Raleigh-based international hunger relief agency.
Coordinating co-chair Denny Camp of the Burke Sunrise Rotary said the meals will be sent to the Damascus Rotary in Haiti where they will be distributed to area schools.
"The parents will send their children to school so they can get fed for the day," Camp explained.
Stop Hunger Now's food packages include rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a flavoring mix that includes 21 essential vitamins and minerals.
According to the organization, each package has a shelf life of five years and contains six servings, each of which costs 25 cents.
Camp said that in addition to the Rotarians, affiliate clubs at Western Piedmont Community College, Freedom and Patton high schools and more than 30 local churches, have helped raise enough money to produce the 240,000 meals.
After bagging 126,004 meals last year, Camp said the Rotarians hoped to raise enough to make 150,000 meals in 2009. Major donations from the Rostan Foundation and Western Presbyterian Church and grants from Rotary International and Rotary District 76-70 provided enough money for 240,000.
There are more volunteers than can work at one time, so they will package the bags in a series of two-hour shifts at the Collett Street Recreation Center. The sessions begin at 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Camp said the project still needs volunteers, especially for the latter two sessions. Volunteers can also help today at 7 p.m. with unloading containers from the Stop Hunger Now trucks.
More than 200,000 meals may seem a lot, but the Rotary clubs of western North Carolina hope to assemble 1 million meals next year, Camp said.
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