9,000 meals packed in less than 45 minutes. Just 11,000 more to go.

Volunteers with the Fort Hays State University Global Leadership Project gathered at Forsyth Library Saturday afternoon to assemble food packages donated by the non-profit hunger relief organization Numana, based in El Dorado.  Sixteen higher education institutions in Kansas are participating this month in the SWIPE Out hunger initiative.

Each meal package consists of rice, soy, freeze-dried beans, and a vitamin blend, that feeds six people.  The 20,000 meals assembled in Hays will be shipped to starving people in the Horn of Africa.

Nearly 25,000 people die every day from hunger-related issues.