In the span of just one hour, the Bear Den saw students and volunteers come together to pack over 10,000 meals Sept. 26.
Volunteers were invited to spend the hour packing fortified rice and bean dinners for the Bear Essentials food pantry to help UCA students and faculty.
The UCA Student Government Association, the Rotaract International Club, the Honors Center Society and the Conway Morning Rotary Club collaborated to host a food-packing event to provide meals for students facing food insecurity.
“Today’s party put us at 327,000 meals so far for the year. But we’d like to do 604,000, which is our goal for this year,” said Jeff Medders, the program coordinator for Hunger Relief Army at City Connections.
Leah Horton, the associate dean of Schedler Honors College, said that the Hunger Relief Army from City Connections Incorporated hosted a food-packing event during Global Goals Week to raise awareness of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and address food insecurity, a significant issue on college campuses.
“I would say, step out of your comfort zone,” Horton said. “It might feel awkward if you are not sure what is going on, but one of the things I liked about today’s event was seeing students just hanging out and supporting each other. Everyone was super cool, and giving back to your community feels good.”
During the event, volunteers were taught meal preparation, and they demonstrated how to measure each portion of beans and rice and then package each meal bag.
Medders set up a metal bucket, which he named the “chicken bucket,” to repurpose any leftover or messed-up meal bag ingredient portions.
This ensured that all the food, even just a grain, would still be used to feed something, even his chickens.
Senior Taylor Jones said preparing meals during events like this is relatively easy because the volunteers work as a group.
Horton thanked the community for making the event possible and helping to address food insecurity on the UCA campus.
Horton said, “One of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is no hunger. So all of the food that we packed today, which was over 10,000 meals, is going to the Bear Essentials food pantry.”
Medders said, “People love to receive food. We will attend a concert event where we would have a merch booth and have homeless people, and they roll up on our booth and say, ‘You are the one who makes these. You fed us lots of times. We really like the apple cinnamon oatmeal.’
“We got an excellent response about the flavor of the food, and we feel good about it because it is a highly nutritious food. When we give food to folks in need, we want to give them something high quality,” he said.
Sophomore Omar Died said, “Events like these are a lot of fun, and it feels great giving back to the community since it also helps students around you.”