Feeding the hungry is his present

Darron Stover invited his friends to celebrate his 35th birthday Saturday packaging food for the hungry at a warehouse in North Raleigh, and he received more than he wished for.

His friends, fellow Fairmont United Methodist Church members, and even people he didn't know from a group of Cary Indian Princesses and a youth choir from Blacksburg, Va., joined together to prepare approximately 25,400 meals, surpassing his target of 20,000.

"I'm just absolutely in awe of the people and them showing up like that," the North Raleigh resident said.

The food was prepared for Stop Hunger Now, a nonprofit international hunger relief organization started in 1998 and based in Raleigh.

He'd asked his friends to help package food because 30,000 people die every day of hunger and hunger-related diseases, he said. Many people are unaware of how pervasive hunger is, he said.

"These people die every single day," said Stover, an investment advisory representative. "It's like having a tsunami every week."

The problem may seem overwhelming, he said, but Stop Hunger Now's efforts are making a difference.

"It feeds people who aren't as fortunate as us," said Jacob Kintz, 9, who volunteered with his family from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cary. "It might help improve the world."

By late Saturday morning, 110 volunteers were busy preparing bags of what might best be described as dehydrated chicken casserole. Teams gathered around funnels and took turns dumping soy protein, dehydrated vegetables, rice and powdered chicken stock with vitamins into plastic bags that were weighed and heat-sealed. Other volunteers counted, sorted, stacked and loaded the meals into boxes that will be shipped around the world.

Each bag holds six meals, and the bags can last up to five years. A gong sounded each time 1,000 meals had been prepared.

"Who needs more chicken stock?" shouted Fairmont UMC Minister Steve Hickle as he walked through the warehouse waving a red scoop.

"It's blessed chaos," Hickle joked, adding that, "It really is organized." He's vice-chair of the board of directors for Stop Hunger Now, which has administrative offices on the third floor of Fairmont UMC at 2501 Clark Ave. near N.C. State University.

Since December, 700 volunteers have packaged more than 200,000 meals, according to Ray Buchanan, president and CEO of Stop Hunger Now. The meals cost 20 cents per serving, he said, and the ingredients are purchased with financial gifts and donations. Help from the volunteers allows $1,000 to feeds about 5,000 people, he said.

"It gives people a chance to do something," Buchanan said.

Buchanan hopes to open a second packaging center in Charlotte in March, followed by centers in Virginia and Mississippi. Eventually, he hopes to have warehouses throughout the world that would store bags of food, which will be provided regularly to school-age children. In addition, those locations would allow for more timely food relief responses to disasters.

The first 150,000 meals were scheduled to leave for orphanages in Haiti this week, according to Chad Stutsman, program director for Stop Hunger Now.

Saturday's volunteers ranged in age from five to 85, Buchanan said, and the project provides a good way for families to volunteer together.

"That is important," Buchanan said, "because it shows that everyone can make a difference on behalf of the hungry."

For more information or to make a donation, contact Chad Stutsman at 839-0689 or go to www.stophungernow.org.