Stop Hunger Now and Hotline

By

What was the problem-Stop Hunger Now

• 1 in 7 people will go to bed hungry tonight.• Stop Hunger Now is trying to end world hunger. Stop Hunger Now primarily ships

its meals to support school feeding programs. The packaging operation is mobile, (i.e. it can go wherever volunteers are located), and can be adapted to accommodate as few as 25 and as many as 500 volunteers at a time. One SHN packaging event can result in the packaging of more than 1,000,000 meals or product servings. The use of volunteers for product packaging has resulted in an extremely cost-effective operation while, at the same time, increasing awareness of global hunger and food insecurity issues across a broad cross-section of the US population.

• Stop Hunger Now has packaged more than 34 million meals since the inception of the meal packaging program in Dec 2005.

How did I help?• Well I heard about Stop Hunger Now from Teen Court. On April 18th we

had to be at the community center building in Manteo, across from CVS by four. Then we’d be packing food till six or seven (I’ve misplaced the information). Our goal was to pack 10,000 meals in our short window. One meal consisted of a package of vitamins, a cup of dried vegetables, and a cup of rice in a small plastic bag. It had to weigh a certain amount. I hate to brag but we (my team) think we were packing the fastest. Considering we kept calling for our boxes to be refilled much sooner than the other teams. Even with our time of packing reduced to about two hours (we were allowed to eat, then their was set up, and the information video). We had to wear either a hairnet or a provided ball-cap and gloves. It took us one hour and thirty minutes to get through our 10,000 meal bags. Between about twenty people.

What did I learn?

• I learned that it takes teamwork to complete a goal. That and a short time frame, and a large workload. I also learned quite a few upsetting fact about world hunger.

• A child dies of hunger every seven seconds. • I learned that rice is last every time. No matter how tired my

feet are. • A certain friend didn’t learn to stop calling me every hour. I

told her the first time “I’ve got to pack food. I’ll call you at eight.”.

Was the activity worthwhile?

• It was really worthwhile. Despite the sore feet (which I can endure if I plan to do this again next year and I do). I’d really recommend this activity for anyone and not just to burn community service hours.

• I’d recommend international attention to world hunger. Who cares about the Kardashians and the latest Duggar baby problem? There is a child dying somewhere. In the five minutes it took for E! to cover the latest Lindsay Lohen mistake forty-two children died of hunger!

• I knew I should have just gone for world hunger. But mom didn’t want to drive out to the Food Pantry, far as I know. Come to think of it I don’t even know where the Food Pantry is.

What is the problem-Hotline

• Due, I believe, to the amount of alcohol and drugs available here on the Outer Banks men (and women too) become intoxicated and feel secure in abusing the person their with. You also get a lot of vacationers reporting rape and abuse because the abuser feels that they’ll get away with it with the amount of traffic the Outer Banks receive. They’re wrong.

How did I help?

• Well I did get to shred files. I will divulge nothing (when the darn thing jammed or overheated I truly had nothing to read). I finally reached my peak when the darn thing got to the point of overheating every five minutes and taking another twenty to cool down. It also had a closing problem and when I spent ten minutes trying to close the door I decided I needed a new job, before I lost my mind.

• I then proceeded to sort clothes until I left. I expected nothing more than that.

What did I learn?

• I learned that I should start practicing on our shredder (if the darn thing still works) because, as no one’s hiring me, my parents will have me working for Hotline this summer and I’ll no doubt get stuck shredding again.

Was the activity worthwhile?• I guess it was. Considering my bar of community service was set after Stop

Hunger Now I personally say, no. I guess I should be gushing about it’s success. I should count myself thankful that my father (or mother, or non-existent boyfriend) isn’t abusive, a drinker, or a drug addict. Perhaps I’m just spoiled.

• I think everyone high in the clouds should be reduced to working in a hotline like store. Shredding paper with a shredder sent from Hades Palace, to tense their nerves. Then they should view information about the high abuse (substance and physical) going on in the Outer Banks.

• By high-in-the-clouds I mean the stars. Not the Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt’s of Hollywood (adopting orphans in Africa and Asia) but the one’s truly unaware of what goes on world-wide.