WILSON, N.C. — For the fourth consecutive year, the Barton College Student Government Association has raised awareness and funding on campus and throughout the Wilson community for the STOP HUNGER NOW international project. During their first year in 2008, the SGA raised enough funding to package 10,000 meals. By year three, the students had “raised the bar” to package 40,000 meals in April 2010. On Thursday, April 28, Barton students, faculty, and staff will once again package 40,000 meals for STOP HUNGER NOW.
Last year, the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities recognized Barton College’s annual STOP HUNGER NOW project as a model program for other NCICU schools that do not already have this program in place, and Rick Kearney, Goldsboro Operation Sharehouse Coordinator for STOP HUNGER NOW, lauded the efforts of the Barton students, holding up Barton College as a model for other schools, large and small, to emulate.
Barton students spearheaded a number of fundraising efforts this year, including: the third annual Barton College / Dick’s Hot Dog Dash, similar in concept to the famous Krispy Kreme Run in Raleigh. They also held a Chick-fil-A fundraiser, two Moe’s Nights, a Buffalo Wild Wings wing eating contest, a Volleyball Spirit Night, a Basketball Spirit Night, a Family Weekend Raffle, and Water Pong fundraiser, as well as distributing STOP HUNGER NOW desk donation boxes that were placed in offices and residence hall rooms across campus for student, faculty, and staff donations. A number of area churches and civic organizations including the Wilson Rotary Club made significant donations toward the effort. Online giving through the Barton web site also boosted funds.
Established in 1998 and headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., STOP HUNGER NOW is a non-profit, international relief organization committed to ending hunger worldwide. STOP HUNGER NOW leads ongoing efforts to feed the hungry in more than 71 countries around the world by providing direct emergency food and other life-saving aid to crisis areas.
The mission of the STOP HUNGER NOW organization is to provide the maximum amount of food and life saving aid to the maximum number of the most poor and hungry throughout the world in the most rapid, efficient, and effective manner. STOP HUNGER NOW has become an international leader in humanitarian relief with the distribution of more than $66 million dollars of direct aid and more than 20 million meals.
Creating its meal-packaging program in 2005, the STOP HUNGER NOW program has perfected the assembly process that combines rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a flavoring mix including 21 essential vitamins and minerals into small meal packages. Each meal costs only 25 cents. The food stores easily, has a shelf life of five years, and transports quickly.
STOP HUNGER NOW works with international partners that ship and distribute the meals. The majority of STOP HUNGER NOW’s meals supply school lunch programs. This process for distribution, through school feeding programs in hunger-stricken regions, is seen as a practical means to end hunger. And, because of the ease of assembly and transport, these meals can be shipped to areas in crisis.
END
Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.