Nearly 500 volunteers packaged more than 200,000 meals Saturday, in an event to eliminate hunger for starving children around the world.
Janna Bergstedt, Kids Against Hunger co-coordinator and Kiwanis vice-president, estimated 480 volunteers from Jamestown as well as Steele, Marion, Litchville, Medina, Courtenay and Wimbledon packaged 218,500 meals for families locally as well as in developing countries like Haiti and Somalia.
"We're thankful that the community came out to help us," she said.
Kids Against Hunger is a humanitarian food aid organization that sets up packaging centers in communities throughout the Midwest. The packaging center in Jamestown Saturday was the R.M. Stoudt building.
Volunteers then assemble the meals, which consist of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and 21 vitamins and minerals and cost 23 cents apiece.
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Kids Against Hunger meals are distributed through local churches, schools and community centers rather than governments, helping keep costs down and also preventing meals from ending up on the black market or in the wrong hands.
The Kiwanis Club of Jamestown organized the first Kids Against Hunger event it in April, raising $23,000 and packaging about 100,000 meals. But after an anonymous donor offered $25,000 in matching funds in September, Kiwanis raised an additional $26,000 in two months, Bergstedt said.
The next Kids Against Hunger event has not yet been set, however, Bergstedt said she anticipates to hold one packaging event each year.
