Over 800 West Chester Residents Scheduled to Package 120,000 Meals

(West Chester, PA, 4/29/16) – More than 800 residents of the West Chester community are teaming up with Stop Hunger Now in a unique 24-hour meal packaging marathon. Starting at 4 pm on April 29th at First Presbyterian Church, volunteers will assemble 120,000 meals for the world’s most vulnerable.
Community members will work through the night and into the next day in 12 two-hour shifts. This is the first time the nonprofit has held a 24-hour meal-packaging marathon; most events last a few hours. Stop Hunger Now meal packaging is a volunteer-based program that coordinates the streamlined assembly of nutritious, dehydrated meals comprised of rice, soy, vegetables and 23 essential vitamins and minerals.
“Stop Hunger Now makes it easy and fun!” says Dory Speer of First Presbyterian Church. She has been coordinating this event with others on a Stop Hunger Now planning team since the first meal packaging event they attended last March. “What drives us as individuals is probably different for each of us, but as a group, we are driven to accomplish the eradication of world hunger – especially for children – in our lifetimes,” says Speer.
Around the world, nearly 795 million people lack adequate food. Stop Hunger Now operates meal packaging locations in 20 cities throughout the U.S. and six international locations in South Africa, Malaysia, the Philippines, Italy, India  and Peru. Last year, more than 353,000 volunteers from corporations, churches, schools and civic organizations packaged Stop Hunger Now meals.
Founded in 1998, Stop Hunger Now has delivered aid and disaster relief supplies in the form of food, medical supplies, clothing, school supplies and more to thousands of disaster victims and other hungry and vulnerable people in 73 countries.
“What we want everyone to know is that hunger is solvable and is the common thread among the world’s most challenging issues,” said Rod Brooks, President and CEO  of Stop Hunger Now.  “When hunger is targeted, you give leverage and hope to every other cause including poverty, disease, education and the welfare of women and children.”
The event is being sponsored by First Presbyterian Church of Westchester and Westminster Presbyterian church and is open to the public.  To register for the event, please contact the local Stop Hunger Now Program Manager Richard Armenia.