Christian group packs 110,000 meals for Haiti
August 28, 2013
By Anyssa Roberts | Assistant News Editor
The Christian Student Fellowship packed 110,000 meals for Haiti on Wednesday.
Including CSF officers, 533 people came for the first shift, and they were packing 25,000 meals per shift.
Senior nursing student Michelle Brown was inspired to participate by CSF’s mission to serve others and her religion.
“Jesus told us to feed the hungry, and that’s what I am here to do,” she said.
Each meal contains rice, soy, dried vegetables and vitamins with more nutritional value than red meat, said Mathew Collins. Collins is the program director at Lifeline Christian Mission, which is the group CSF is working with to send the meals.
In the sanctuary of the CSF building, rows of tables covered with supplies filled the room.
Around each table, an assembly line of volunteers worked to meet the first session’s quota of 25,000 meals.
Under the music of the DJ, the project was in full swing, and within minutes of starting, each table was packing meals and filling boxes.
People from all age groups and religions worked side by side to meet their goal, such as Sammy Zarbanad and Elahe Safikhani, who are Iranian Muslims. Both women’s husbands attend UK.
“We like that there is such a large group. We like helping and participating in the community,” Zarband said.
Marshall said he did not want religion to separate those volunteering.
“That is what is good about events like this,” Collins said. “It’s not about your religion as much as it is about helping those in need.”
To transport the food to its final destination, Lifeline Christian Mission will combine CSF’s meals with those collected by other missions.
In total, they plan on deliver more than 285,000 meals, but he said they will not last as long as it sounds.
There are nearly 10,000 students in Haiti schools as well as other children in various orphanages and shelters that will receive the meals.
The meals are going to feed people in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for a little more than a week, Collins said.