Hundreds of volunteers came to Central Baptist Church Saturday to package 125,000 meals for starving children in third world countries.
A&M Christian fraternity Kappa Upsilon Chi partnered with the global hunger charity Feed My Starving Children to bring an annual mobile food-packing event to Bryan-College Station.
The mobile food-packing event consisted of volunteers packing basic raw ingredients – rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a mixture of vitamins – into packages and putting them into larger boxes for shipment, said Ryan Jicha, service and FMSC committee chair of KYX and sophomore petroleum engineering major.
Jicha said the 230 volunteers this year attempted a new record in number of meals they could provide for those in need.
“Previous years we had raised $22,000 in order to pack 100,000 meals, but this year we decided that we could do more than that,” Jicha said. “And so, we have decided to raise $27,500 in order to pack 125,000 meals. We kind of challenged ourselves, but I think we’ve met it well and so far it’s been a success.”
Jicha said his fraternity has grown to become a patron of the charity over the past few years.
“We vote every year on what our global outreach is going to be for the spring semester and so we as a body voted for Feed My Starving Children,” Jicha said. “But we’ve done it for the past four to five years now, so it’s kind of becoming a regular thing.”
Cody McCarthy, external vice president of KYX and senior psychology major, said his organization enjoys participating in FMSC because it’s a hands-on service activity.
“We actually get to see the fruits of our labor,” McCarthy said.
Jicha said events like FMSC food-packing challenged his perspective about how he spends his money.
“It really makes me think about what I’m spending my money on just because it is just 22 cents per meal, and if I just spent five dollars at a restaurant which seems relatively cheap for a meal,” Jicha said. “That’s a lot of meals that could be provided to these children who really need them.”
The volunteers also managed to have fun while preparing and packaging meals for the cause, Jicha said.
“Everyone loves it,” Jicha said. “It’s kind of like a little competition, trying to see who can pack the most.”
The event included fun and exciting antics to encourage the volunteers to work quickly, McCarthy said.
“Once you pack a box, there’s 36 meal packs in a box, you scream ‘Hey!’ or something like that,” McCarthy said. “Most teams have a chant to get everyone pumped up and pack some more meals.”
“It was great. I think my group must have gotten around six boxes. [The competition] gave us a little motivation to keep pushing,” said sophomore petroleum engineering major Kenny Guion.
KYX was also able to incorporate the good will of their faith in the event as well, McCarthy said.
“My favorite part is before the last session,” McCarthy said. “They’ll gather around the packaged food and pray over it before we ship it out, which I really think is something special.”
Tanner Carroll, sophomore communication major, said he loved participating in the previous FMSC event and enjoyed coming back as a fraternity member.
“It’s a great opportunity to just have fun with friends, dance around and act crazy, but still get to help kids in need,” Carroll said.
“Just in the first session we fed over 130 kids for a year,” Carroll said. “It’s really awesome that we could have such an impact in such a short amount of time, and we’re all just having fun.”