Winter break at Bowie State University doesn’t end until next week, but dozens of students, alumni and other employees at the school showed up a few days early to help others who don’t have as much.
The school partnered with international nonprofit group Rise Against Hunger to pack meals that will be sent to children and their families in other countries who experience poverty at levels that are hard for many others to comprehend.
“I cannot overstate how important these meals are,” said Charlie Pol, of Rise Against Hunger. “They don’t go to just generally hungry areas. They are going specifically to feed children who have no real concept of where any of their next meals are coming from.”
Most of the time that ends up being a school in South America, Asia or Africa. The nonprofit group supplied all the components of the meals. The students just worked like an assembly line to pack it all up so it can be loaded on to pallets and eventually delivered overseas.
“So we have four ingredients” in each bag, said Pol. “The first ingredient in every bag is a vitamin packet that really helps for where these meals go. They’re extremely nutrient deficient, as well as extremely hungry. The second ingredient is always a nice big mug of soy. The third ingredient is a nice small spoon of dehydrated veggies, sort of exactly like the veggies that come in a ramen packet. And then the last mug is always of rice.”
Amani Jennings, Bowie State’s dean of students, said none of this would’ve happened without the volunteers.
“I feel super lucky,” Bowie State senior Saniya Jones said. “Being able to take the time and help … that some others don’t even actually take the time out of their day to do, so just being able to give back is the biggest thing for me. It’s a blessing.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by sophomore Deontae Roscoe.
“It’s nice to give back to people, especially if you’re not doing anything,” he said, explaining why he cut short his winter break a little early. “Might as well make a difference.”
While each bag of food only takes a few seconds to prepare, provided everyone was working as a team, the goal was to fill more than 20,000 bags in the span of about four hours.
“I’m incredibly impressed by them,” said Pol. “And I hope that it’s impactful for them as well.”
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