Growing up in Bangladesh, Abul Hasan developed a personal relationship with hunger — meat was seen as a rare delicacy and he relied on rice and homegrown vegetables for his daily source of energy.

Now a junior economics major, Hasan said his experiences with hunger propelled him to volunteer at a hunger awareness event on Saturday, hosted by Hendricks Chapel, the STEP Center of the Lutheran Campus Ministry and the Grace Episcopal Church. At the event, volunteers packaged 16,800 bean and rice meals, while some volunteers participated in a 24-hour fast to raise awareness and help out those in need.

Hasan said he believes that volunteering at these sorts of events will raise awareness for an issue that is rarely talked about.

“I feel like it’s just something we should do,” Hasan said. “If we ourselves are able to eat we should help others in need.”

The event was one of many events held this semester as a part of the Hendricks Chapel hunger initiative. Gail Riina, the Lutheran chaplain at Hendricks, said it created the event in an effort to attract attention to the severity of the issue.

“Hunger is an issue that touches many, many issues in our society. It’s sort of like the tip of an iceberg and it’s something that we can really relate to,” Riina said.

Riina said there were nine participants in the fast and approximately 50 volunteers who helped package meals for the local community.

“The whole idea behind this is experiencing hunger and what it feels like to be so many people in the United States who don’t have a meal or who don’t have access to nutritious meals,” said Brittany Moore, student director for the STEP center. “I really hope that students will learn that hunger is an issue outside of the third country worlds.”

The STEP center received a $3,000 grant from the university co-curricular funds pool, which helped funding behind the bean and rice meals volunteers packaged in two hours, Moore said. KidsCare, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing safe water, food, medical care and education to those in need in the local community and abroad, supplied the meals.

Matthew Martin, the regional manager of Outreach Inc., who brought in materials and helped facilitate the event, said each packaged meal cost a total of $1.50. He added it contained a specially developed pack of 21 vitamins, dehydrated vegetables, soy protein, pinto beans and rice that was enough to feed a family of six.

“It’s the most nutritiously expensive meal these folks have ever had in their lives,” Martin said.

In addition, Wegmans gave the STEP center a $100 gift card, which was used to purchase additional, nutritious nonperishable food items. Tops Supermarket and Nottingham High School also initiated food drives, which donated additional food items to the cause.

Throughout the day, there were dialogues, speaker panels, movies and prayer sessions that all centered around the idea of fasting and hunger. After the meal-packaging event, games such as laser tag were also held for those who chose to stay at Hendricks overnight.

On Sunday morning, the participants sent letters to state and local government representatives, urging for a plan to deal with how hunger should be addressed within communities, according to the event schedule. The packaged and donated meals were also delivered on Sunday morning to the Grace Episcopal Church and other Lutheran churches around the Syracuse area to be distributed to the local community.

Published on November 11, 2013 at 1:41 am

Contact Margaret: mglin@syr.edu