Feed The Hunger Sets High Goals For Annual Pack-A-Thon

Feed the Hunger is gearing up for the 7th annual Pack-A-Thon taking place on Friday, Feb. 17. 
The food-packing event, in which nutritious meals are packaged to be distributed to children and families in need, both in America as well as internationally, will be held at the Oxford Intermediate School.
This year, Pack-A-Thon offers four shifts starting Friday, Feb. 17 from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 18 from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m., 12 p.m. – 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
It costs $0.28 per meal to purchase, pack and distribute the food. They ask for donations of at least $65, which would feed one person for an entire year. Sometimes, the meal given by Pack-A-Thon is the only meal they receive all day.
An Ole Miss student, Ashlee Johnson, was one of the volunteers to go on the winter break trip to deliver the food in Haiti this past December. This was Johnson’s second time to travel with Feed the Hunger.
When asked about her experience, she said, “It was an extremely humbling experience to serve the children food that had been paid for and packed by my friends and fellow peers. Everything came full circle in that moment. I knew that I was serving more than a meal. I was serving love, joy and hope to children who needed it most.”
At last year’s Pack-A-Thon, 170,160 meals were packaged, which cost around $47,000.
Emily Barnhouse, this year’s chairperson, said “the goal this year is to pack 180,000 meals, which will cost $50,400. With that goal in mind, it’ll put us at a million meals in seven years packed in Oxford.”
“Feed the Hunger is an incredible organization that impacts lives all around the world. Their mission is twofold: to feed the physical hunger and feed the spiritual hunger of people everywhere. They feed around 4,000 kids a day in Haiti alone,” said last year’s chairperson, Cayla Hari, who was also on the December Haiti trip.
How to Register for the Pack-A-Thon:
1. Go to feedthehunger.org
2. Choose Donate NOW (upper right – it’s green)
3. Choose $65 as the amount
4. Make sure to choose a “One Time” donation
5. Enter your payment info
6. Under donation purpose, arrow down to choose Ole Miss Pack-A-Thon.
7. Dedicate your donation to yourself (or the name of whoever will be working in your place)
8. Choose the 100% option so that Feed the Hunger can get all proceeds
Kappa Kappa Gamma will be putting on a fundraising event prior to the Pack-A-Thon “Karaoke For the Kids” on Wednesday, Feb. 8 from 9 p.m. until midnight at Rooster’s Blues House on the Square. It is $5 prior to the event and $10 at the door. All of the door proceeds will benefit Feed the Hunger.
For more information or questions about how to get involved contact olemissfth@gmail.com or visit the national Feed the Hunger website and Ole Miss’s Feed the Hunger Facebook Page.

By Chandler Burton, an intern for HottyToddy.com and a student of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She can be reached at clburto1@go.olemiss.edu.
For questions or comments, email hottytoddynews@gmail.com.