One hundred HC first-year students spent their Labor Day Sunday volunteering with the organization Rise Against Hunger to package 22,000 meals for children in underdeveloped regions around the world.
Rise Against Hunger Community Engagement Coordinator David Barletta explained that the organization’s mission is to contribute to ending world hunger by 2030, in alignment with United Nations Sustainability Goal #2. “We package the meals with volunteers, and we send them overseas to school feeding programs, hospitals, and orphanages, with the ultimate goal of building up those regions...to the point where they don’t need our meals anymore.”
Students may find that this resonates with the mission of the HC Forum, a first-year course that aims to develop interdisciplinary and innovative thinking, as well as citizenship and leadership skills geared toward creating positive change in the 21st century.
Krista Klein, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, emphasized that “At the Honors College, we encourage students to engage in meaningful community service activities—that is, not just volunteering, but also taking time to reflect on the service being completed. We hope that students integrate service into their lives as Rutgers students and beyond, whatever that looks like for them, to help them pursue a life with purpose.”
The volunteers worked as a team to package, weigh, and seal dehydrated soy, rice, and vegetables into personal-sized bags. At each resounding strike of the gong marking 1,000 meals packaged, the students cheered and continued on with renewed enthusiasm.
The Global Giving service event is part of the HC Serves Series, a program run by the HC Service Assembly, and takes place each year during the HC Welcome Days.
“I think it’s really important for incoming [first-year students] to understand global problems,” said Ethan Lim (’24, EMSOP/HC), a member of the HC Serves Leadership Team. “It’s really important for them to understand how much they can contribute to their local communities and on a global scale.”