By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Fort Hays State University students and community members packed more than 30,000 meals bound for Puerto Rico during the Numana Swipe Out Hunger event Saturday.
Based in El Dorado, Numana, is a nonprofit formed in August 2008, as an international hunger relief organization. Since then, it has packaged over 37 million meals across the United States with the help of over 197,000 volunteers.
Organizers estimated 120 people, mostly students, volunteered to pack meals on Saturday at Forsyth Library. This is the sixth year Numana has packed food with Fort Hays.
Numana partners with an organization called Convoy of Hope, which ships the food to areas in need. Numana already sent a shipping container full of 285,000 meals to Puerto Rico, which was hit hard by Hurricane Maria.
The meals packed Saturday will be in the next shipment to Puerto Rico, which will likely make it to the island in the next three to six months.
Numana also has regular partnerships with relief organizations in Haiti and Africa.
The volunteers Saturday helped pack a special meal bag that contains precooked pinto beans, soy and a vitamin packet. Each meal bag can feed up to six people. There are 36 bags in a box and 216 meals in a box.
The meal bags might not look like much, but the contents are designed for nutrition and ease of cooking.
Ashley Burns, event manager, said the meal packs are often mixed with local ingredients to make a stew or casserole.
“We sometimes get a hard time because they are so bland, but in Haiti they add chicken and fish and hot sauce. In Africa, they add vegetables and things they grow in their own harvest,” she said.
Reilly Franek, one of the student coordinators of Global Leadership Project at FHSU, helped organize the event.
“Really, we want to put a focus on how students can make an impact even from here in Kansas on global issues around the world and acute hunger issues around the world,” she said. “Numana provided us with an avenue to do that and get a large amount of students involved at the same time.”
Franek said the sorority Alpha Gamma Delta partnered with Numana and the Global Leadership Project to host the event, and Sigma Sigma Sigma also provided a group of volunteers for the event.
Ashley Templeton, a graduate student in the higher education student affairs program, said she became involved through one of her sorority sisters.
“This is an annual event, and we always want to support (it), and of course, this is a really important cause,” she said of why she came out to volunteer Saturday.
Rachel Ashbaugh, senior in business management, said, “I feel that it is important to give back to others. I wanted to be a part of what is going on today. With everything that is going on with natural disaster, I think it is important not to forget who needs help.”
Sierra Eichman, freshman in biology and pre-med, said “I have helped with something like this with other organizations, and I have seen how this can help other people in other countries.”
Numana packed food with the Hays Rotary this spring and is already planning for an event next year at FHSU.
If you wish to donate to Numana or volunteer for a future event, visit its website at https://numanainc.com/.