When I signed up for this event, I expected that we would be making sandwiches. When we arrived, I was surprised to find that that wasn’t the case. Instead, I was a part of an assembly line, scooping rice into a sealable bag and creating a nourishing meal that was destined to reach hungry children overseas. The rest of the assembly line was made up of Cornell Gymnastics members, their coach, and her daughter. It was nice to meet them, and they were fun to work with. I was impressed with the efficiency of the system. I felt like I was going through boxes of rice extremely quickly, and it was amazing to watch the boxes of finished meals pile up so fast. Everyone that I talked to was friendly, and the fun atmosphere really made time fly. I’m so glad that I had this opportunity help out with this meaningful project, and I hope that all of our work made an impact.

I enjoyed being part of the efforts and contributions of our Rose Scholars student group helping our local Ithaca community by packing meals to avoid hunger among the needy. It was fun to work in groups to pack scoops of rice and soy, powder protein and vegetables,  as non-perishable food items at St. Catherine of Siena Parish, where the event was hosted this year. We volunteered as part of the 9th Ithaca MobilePack, held October 10-14, 2018.  It was rewarding to learn that with our small volunteering contribution we helped accomplish the following:

* 349,920 meals packed at a cost of $76,982.40 (22 cents per meal)

* 958 children fed a meal a day for a year

Let’s keep our volunteering helping others throughout this Holiday Season, no matter where we go to celebrate it, we can always reach out to those less privilege than us.

Everything about a Zip-Lock bag is pleasing: its transparency, its non-reactive polyethylene, the feeling of the zip finishing locking, its ability to turn entropic chaos into compartmentalized bliss. Truly, these human-hair-thin baggies are the greatest invention to come out of the last century.

Feed My Starving Children can only best be described as industrial Zip-Locking, industrially revolutionizing the happiness gotten from the process. It was simply a delight working with over a hundred people in tandem to sustain others half a world away. It was just like packing my lunch — simple, methodical, cathartic — except for thousands of people in need.

The satisfying action of packing the food into boxes neatly arranged onto pallets to be air-lifted to the Philippines was only accentuated by the lively social atmosphere generated by the organizers. These experienced millennials were clearly in the know of all the hip pop tunes breezing the airways. Furiously packing dehydrated grains to the sound of Ke$ha was when I most felt alive (never underestimate Ke$sha).

Of course, everyone else felt this way too; it was easy to talk to my copackers, so I had the opportunity to meet some fellow Rose Scholars, Ithacans, and employees from the organization for which we were volunteering. It was simply a delight.

I’d encourage anyone with the opportunity to take the chance and volunteer for this community service in the future.

So, if one thing is to be taken away from this experience, it is to never underestimate the Zip-Lock bag.

Walking into the St. Catherine of Siena Church, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew we would be packing meals, but I didn’t know that that entailed. Based on the general title I thought we would be packaging canned goods in boxes. What we actually did was rewarding beyond measure. What do you get when you mix 2 sports teams and about 30 to 40 community members, undergrads, and postgrads? A huge amount of energy and the intense potential to change lives. Assembled in groups, we packaged soy, vitamins, rice, and vegetables in bags that were vacuum sealed and packed in boxes. The idea behind the food packaging was what actually gave me pause. As humans, I honestly believe that we each have a genuine interest and desire to help others whether we may have the resources or not. So for the organization for Feed My Starving Children to be able to partner with and have the resources to provide such a nutrient-rich meal for so many needy children is incredible.

Community service work is something of great importance to me. Having grown up in a community where there were programs to help students and marginalized groups, I wanted to give back to my community as well. During high school, I volunteered yearly in two events, one was a community health fair during the summer and the other was a Thanksgiving event usually the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The Thanksgiving event was my favorite since it was a day where students all over New York City came together to help different community centers and partnerships. I always left the event full of joy. This is why, I decided to sign up for the MobilePack with Feed My Starving Children. This volunteer service lived up to my expectations. It turned out to be a beautiful bonding experience with other members of the community and Cornell where we were all working on the same cause. A cause I consider important since lack of food resources is a main reason why it is hard for countries to become self sustainable. Therefore, I consider the MobilePack a good initiative to start working on this issue.

Last week I had the opportunity to volunteer at the local church to help the Feed My Starving Children non-profit organization pack meals for under privileged children around the world.  Normally I like to be able to relax on my Friday nights and I was skeptical about what a two hour long food packing session would involve.  Thankfully the organization members had devised a very efficient system for packing the meals in addition to providing a fun working environment.  I enjoyed how everybody was really enthusiastic about the volunteer work, ultimately making the food packing not seem like a chore but rather a fun experience.  With the music playing loud and people running all over moving boxes and replenishing the ingredients at different stations, it formed an exhilarating atmosphere that made volunteering enjoyable. I learned that the correct group atmosphere is vital when working on a collective task because we were able to put together some many boxes due to our motivation and enthusiasm.  In addition, the great cause of preparing meals for starving children provided excellent motivation for working together to put out as many boxes as possible.  Our efforts ultimately paid off as we were able to yield enough boxes of food to feed 96 starving children for a year!  All in all, the experience in its entirety made for an enjoyable Friday night.

On Friday, I joined other Rose Scholars as well as an amazing community of other Cornell students (undergrad and graduates), Ithaca College students, and Ithaca residents at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Ithaca to participate in the “Feed My Starving Children” service event. We prepared and packaged “manna packs,” which were filled with rice, soy, vitamins, and vegetables to supply children in impoverished areas with nutritious meals that would support their physical and mental development.

I was so impressed with how well organized the event was. Stations were set up for scooping rice, soy, vitamins, and vegetables into plastic bags through a funnel. The bags were then weighed, sealed, and packed in boxes. Each person had a job and the system was very efficient. Every time a box was filled with the manna-packs the team would cheer, creating an excited and positive atmosphere. The church also played upbeat music. I was in charge of scooping the vitamins and the vegetables into the bags, and my arms were actually sore at the end of the event but I could barely notice– the amazing people and constant reminder of why we were doing this kept everyone energetic and working hard.

I think we ended up packaging enough meals to feed around 96 children one meal a day for an entire year. (My numbers may be a little off.) It was an overall amazing experience with a wonderful community for a worthwhile cause!

In high school, I would volunteer at soup kitchens every other weekend, so I was very excited to volunteer with Feed My Starving Children, which shares similar motives. Because I wasn’t feeling too well due to my allergies, I couldn’t participate in the food packaging portion. Instead, I labeled the packaging with expiration date labels for two hours. Something I found really surprising is that the food we were preparing that day could last until October 2021, which is the year most of us graduate. I hadn’t heard about Feed My Starving Children before this event, but I think it’s incredible how science can be used to formulate food that provides enough nutrients for malnourished children and can also be kept for so long. Something that was emphasized at the event that a mere 23 cents could provide a meal for a child. I think it’s really important for us to always understand how privileged we are and how we are capable of giving back to our community whether it be through manual labor or small donations.

This past Friday, I participated in the Feed My Starving Children service event. Not only was it a nice opportunity to get off campus, but I also found it to be a truly meaningful experience that very few one-off events like these are. Feed My Starving Children is an organization that takes donations to pay for meals that get sent to hungry children in at least 70 countries around the world. Volunteers at mobile packing stations like the one in Ithaca work in shifts to pack the meals. We worked for an hour and a half and packed nearly two hundred boxes, each containing 36 meal packs, and each meal pack contained 5 servings. It was incredible to think that in that short amount of time, I was able to help put together thousands of meals that will go directly to children with who live with food insecurity. Although it was easy to zone out while performing our individual responsibilities during packing, this was definitely one of the most directly effective service projects I have ever been a part of.

As I waited in the church for the FMSC event, it was amazing to see a multitude of different groups in the Ithaca community all in one place. For example, there were diverse organizations from Cornell University as well as groups from Ithaca College and local Ithacan families. As the people leading the event explained the rules, I was very content to see how excited everyone was to be there. I was part of the labeling group and I was with a group of people from these different groups. It was very interesting to learn from each other and to be brought together for one purpose- to help serve our community and our world.