Mars Area Key Club packs 10,000 meals for overseas
ADAMS TWP — About 30 members of Mars Area High School's Key Club spent Saturday packing food for people in need overseas.
High schoolers gathered in their cafeteria to pack dry meals for the international hunger relief organization Rise Against Hunger. The involved students packaged up over 10,000 meals of rice, soy protein and dehydrated vegetables.
The Key Club is one of the largest service organizations at Mars Area High School. Its treasurer, the 17-year-old senior Clayton Pfeifer, pitched and organized this latest project after participating in a similar event with Rise Against Hunger a few years ago at Mars United Presbyterian Church.
“It's a good cause, ending hunger,” Clayton said. “And it's a fun event that people really enjoy doing.”
The atmosphere Saturday was both focused and lively. Teams of students wearing hair nets portioned out bags of food, passed them along to be sealed and then finally tossed them to a packing team to fill up boxes.
Rise Against Hunger has several markets throughout the country that pool together boxes of food from events such as Saturday's into shipments. The Pittsburgh area sends another shipment every three or four months, according to Joey Kelly, who works in its community engagement program.
Once the region amasses about 300,000 meals in a shipping container, it's sent overseas. The latests shipment went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Kelly wasn't sure exactly where Mars' food would go, but he said that the recipients are often schools in developing countries that aren't able to routinely provide meals for students. The group provides about 2 million meals a year.The Key Club's faculty sponsor is chemistry teacher Becky Winek. She said it was the club's first time doing this particular project and that the students seemed to be enjoying it.The food cost about $3,500, Winek said. Club members raised the money primarily through student donations, along with some fundraising. The club includes more than 100 students.Josh Kaleida, the club's president and an 18-year-old senior, said efforts such as Saturday's can help students overcome feelings of helplessness through the power of group organizing.“A lot of students don't believe they can make a difference, but with the right numbers anyone can,” Josh said.Club members such as Alek Johnson, a junior, said the day's work felt right.“It just feels good helping others,” Alek said. “We don't really have to be here right now, but this feels good so we are.”
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