“Stop Hunger Now” Event Embodies Ferrum College Motto “Not Self, But Others”

More than 400 Franklin County and College community members combine efforts to package and ship over 50,000 meals to countries in need.

Ferrum, Va. (Feb. 21, 2012) – This past weekend more than 400 people came together on the Ferrum College campus and packaged 52,000 meals during the third annual Stop Hunger Now event, which brought true meaning to the College motto “Not Self, But Others.” With the $13,000 cost of ingredients covered by donations, these highly nutritious meals were packaged in just three hours and will be shipped to feed the world’s most impoverished.

Co-sponsored by the Ferrum College Rotaract Club, the Rocky Mount Rotary Club, and Mu Sigma Chi, the Stop Hunger Now event included fundraisers, donors and volunteers from Ferrum College Greek societies and service organizations, as well as Boy and Girl Scouts, churches, civic groups, families and individuals from around Franklin County.

“So many individuals and organizations helped support this Stop Hunger Now event and many College faculty, staff, students and parishioners were part of the effort,” said Ferrum College President Dr. Jennifer Braaten. “We are proud of the amount of time and energy that so many from our community devote to help so many other people both locally and around the world.”

Stop Hunger Now event organizer and former Ferrum College board member, Walter Hughes, agreed. “The wonderful partnership is so appreciated between the College, Rotary, churches, clubs, and fraternities and sororities,” he said.

Through Stop Hunger Now’s packaging program, volunteers package life-saving meals combining rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables, flavoring and a mixture of 21 vitamins and minerals into reasonable servings of six. The meals are easy to transport, have a long shelf life and cost only $0.25 per meal to create. All costs are covered by donations. Since the program’s inception, more than 155,000 volunteers have packaged more than 58 million meals.