Students, staff, and community members rallied together to package over 650,000 relief meals
When you combine 17,550 pounds of soy, 4,750 pounds of vegetables, and over 101,000 vitamin packets with thousands of volunteers, what you get is a new world record and a huge global impact.
On Sept. 7, students, staff, and members of the Guelph community joined together in the Gryphon Field House to fight world hunger in an event brought forward by the BetterPlanet Project. The aim of this event was to package over 650,000 emergency relief meals in two hours to be sent to Mauritania, West Africa.
This was the third annual World Record Event to Fight Hunger at the University of Guelph. Last year, Guelph beat their own world record with over 350,000 meals packaged in one hour. This year, sights were set even higher by doubling the time and packaging 659,000 meals in two hours. By doing this, Guelph beat another world record by assembling over one million meals in just one year.
The organizer of the event was Gavin Armstrong, a PhD student at the University of Guelph. Armstrong spearheaded the event in 2011 as a way to encourage students to make volunteering and eliminating hunger a priority in their everyday lives.
At the event, Armstrong urged students to “take the power [they] feel now in influencing so many lives and to keep it going in the future.” As Armstrong pointed out, “more than 25, 000 people die each day from hunger – more than tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS combined.” This is precisely the reason why it is so important for the community to come together to fight this issue, even if just for two hours.
The event consisted of participants acting as part of an assembly line to prepare, measure, and package meals. Each meal consisted of rice, soy, vegetables, beans, and a vitamin packet, which were then sealed in boxes and sent on their way.
The meals will be distributed in Mauritania to help combat a great food crisis in the region. In addition to poor access to water and sanitation, Mauritanians suffer from high rates of food insecurity and malnutrition. This means that the country relies heavily on food imported from other countries.
Of the many volunteers present at the event, groups representing Scotia Bank, TD Banks, and Guelph Alumni were some of the most high-profile and spirited. Also present were Mandy Gibson and Katie Yeandle, two first-year students new to the university. “Our team alone packaged over 900 meals,” explained Gibson. “Volunteering is fun and easy, and [I] can’t think of a better way to help people.”
President and Vice-Chancellor Alastair Summerlee was also active at the event. “It was absolutely fantastic, and the participants definitely exceeded all expectations,” said Summerlee.
The World Record Event to Fight Hunger was made possible through partnerships with Numana Inc., ONEXONE, the World Food Program, and Kinross Gold Corp, who generously donated the food used for the event. Combating global hunger is only possible with the cooperation of people who want to see a change in the world. Students are encouraged to get involved through other initiatives on campus and to remember that together we can create a better planet.