On Wednesday April 3, Theta Chi Fraternity, Farmville Methodist Church and the Office of Civic Leadership and Engagement hosted their annual Stop Hunger Now event in the Lankford Student Union Ballroom. With over 100 people in attendance to help package and bag food, all involved helped to package over 21,000 bags.
Stop Hunger Now is a unique event offered to Longwood Students because it allows every student to make an immediate impact on the world. Representatives from many different organizations participate in the event, and it brings the Farmville community and Longwood students together for a common purpose.
Before the event even began, Theta Chi, Farmville Methodist Church and the Office of Civic Leadership and Engagement came together multiple times over the past year to sponsor various fundraising events to raise money for their big, community-wide Stop Hunger Now event.
Ryan Pereira, president of Theta Chi Fraternity, said, “The Stop Hunger Now meal packaging event is one of the most unique philanthropy events at Longwood. Something that sets our event apart, I believe, is that the participants can directly see how big of an impact that they are having for people in need.”
Katherine Raborn, program coordinator for the Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement, was a crucial part of getting the event organized along with Theta Chi brother Cameron Wilmer, who took the initiative to help ensure that the event was a success. The Farmville Methodist Church contributed to the event by hosting a dinner at the church for the volunteers before the event began.
The ballroom was packed with volunteers and supplies for the event. With all the volunteers lined up in assembly line fashion, it made the food packaging more efficient.
Each volunteer was assigned a specific position at a designated station along with his or her supplies. The different stations at the event included packaging, weighing, sealing and counting each bag or package of rice.
For this event, students and community volunteers assembled to package bags of rice for people in need in order to save lives globally. Theta Chi and the other organizations involved set a goal to package over 20,000 bags in two hours and exceeded that goal by over 1,000 bags.
The packages will be sent all over the world to different countries that are dealing with a food crisis, and then will delivered to the people who need the food the most.
Places the food has been sent in the past through Stop Hunger Now include Haiti and Africa. The packaged food has also been sent to people who have been affected by natural disasters.
Sam Bradtke, a freshman in Theta Chi, commented on his experience and said, “It felt so good to exceed our goal. I am so glad I got a chance to be a part of this event as a freshman.”
The brothers of Theta Chi Fraternity set next year’s goal for about 25,000 meals packaged.
About future Stop Hunger Now events, Pereira said, “We are definitely going to set our goal higher for next year. I just hope that we can keep expanding and keep having it bigger each and every year.”
