A relief agency assisted by Elon University students earlier this semester is shipping food packed on campus to African nations grappling with an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.
Meals packaged in late August by Elon University students are on their way to West African communities stricken by an Ebola outbreak that has already killed thousands of people.
Elon University’s affiliate of The Campus Kitchens Project, a national organization focused on hunger, led the Aug. 30 meal-packing event in coordination with the North Carolina-based “Stop Hunger Now” international relief agency.
Students that day packed more than 40,000 meals consisting of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables, and essential vitamins and minerals. Stop Hunger Now is now sending those boxed meals to Sierra Leone and Liberia, two African countries hit hard in recent months by the deadly virus.
“This shipment is one of several containers of meals being sent to Africa in response to the region’s deepening Ebola crisis,” said Darren Stover ’93 G’95, program manager for Stop Hunger Now. “These meals will be distributed through a network of entities in the region. Beyond the effects of Ebola on those stricken, the economic and societal impacts are devastating areas already facing great hardship.”
The August service event was a collaboration between the Center for Leadership, the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement, New Student and Transition Programs, Residence Life, the Resident Student Association, and the Truitt Center for Religious & Spiritual Life.
For more information on Stop Hunger Now meal-packing events, or on other ongoing campus efforts to address food security, contact Steve Caldwell, Campus Kitchen project coordinator, at scaldwell6@elon.edu.