UIndy honors Martin Luther King Jr. Day with Pack Away Hunger project
Hundreds of University of Indianapolis faculty, staff, students and community members braved snowy streets to spend a morning packing thousands of meals for the hungry.
The third annual “Pack Away Hunger” service project in the Schwitzer Student Center honored Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Around 250 volunteers scooped, measured, weighed and packed 56,000 meals in just more than two hours for Pack Away Hunger.
“We volunteered as a group. We wanted to do something together to help the community and we thought this would be a good opportunity,” said Ariel Callis ‘19 (nursing).said.
Hannah Amberger ’19 (nursing) said she appreciates the University’s focus on service learning.
“I’ve been involved in service projects since freshman year, when we did Super Saturday of Service. That opened me up to realizing the different ways I can give back to the community,” she said.
Pack Away Hunger works to battle hunger in Indianapolis and across the world by providing nutritious meals for families. Each Nutri-Plenty™ meal provides vitamins and minerals and contains a healthy mixture of rice, soy, vegetables and flavorings. The meals packed on Monday will be distributed to central Indiana food banks to feed families in the community.
After the service project, volunteers gathered for a time of conversation and reflection and enjoyed a lunch featuring King’s favorite foods.
President Rob Manuel thanked volunteers for venturing out in snowy weather to spend their day off giving back. He noted that the University completes more than 120,000 service hours in the community each year.
Several student groups volunteered for the 2018 Pack Away Hunger project, including the women’s basketball team and the Student Nurses Association.