Peru, Nebraska– Peru State student organizations, faculty and staff and community members gathered in the Al Wheeler Activity Center March 21 to package over 10,000 meals for Kids Against Hunger.
Peru State’s Student Success Services (SSS), Good Samaritan Society, Actions in Motion (AIM), Volleyball team and Home Health partnered with Omaha Against Hunger, a volunteer-based, non-profit organization that distributes Kids Against Hunger food products.
Dr. Gina Bittner, faculty advisor for AIM, writes, “It is an honor to be a part of a campus and community that values service to those in need. Kids Against Hunger is an organization worthy of our commitment, which the Actions in Motion campus ministry organization of Peru State College recognized when developing this annual tradition three years ago.”
“This event could not happen without the community and campus ministry organization’s monetary donations or the time commitment required of those who made the event happen.”
Omaha Against Hunger’s Dan Jensen adds, “We love partnering with Peru State and Nemaha County. We love seeing the community and engaging with the College. Peru State always does a nice job and reaches the goals we set.”
Kids Against Hunger is a non-profit Omaha-based national organization whose goal is to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the U.S. and to feed starving children throughout the world.
After a five-minute training video and an hour of packing meal bags, the volunteers had put together 10,854 Latin Rice meals, composed of dark soy, beans, Latin spice and rice. Jensen reported that those meals equaled 418 pounds of soy, 67 pounds of beans, 105 pounds of Latin seasoning and 968 pounds of rice.
Serena Nelson, president of AIM, said, “This is a really good program to get involved in. It was my first time doing something like this, and I loved seeing all these groups come together for a good cause.”
All the packaged meals will be donated to Food Bank for the Heartland and then distributed to children in Nebraska and western Iowa.
For more information, visit www.peru.edu.
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