SAU freshmen pack meals for nonprofit Feed My Starving Children

MAGNOLIA, Ark. (KSLA) - An Arkansas university has teamed with a food distribution organization to help fight the world’s hunger problem.

Classes have not yet started at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia; but on Monday (Aug. 21), freshmen received a lesson in giving back not only to their community but to others outside their community as well.

“The main issue at SAU is to make global impact. And so we are doing that by getting our freshmen involved right off the bat in our freshmen orientation,” said Katie Heese, volunteer coordinator for SAU.

Mary Kirkpatrick, a volunteer with Feed My Starving Children, said the entire freshman class was packing meals for the nonprofit. Leaders with the nonprofit said they send prepackaged meals all around the world to help feed kids in need of food. Kirkpatrick estimates that more than 100,000 individual packages were put together Monday.

“I think beside the fact that we really want to feed children and we should be able to pack enough to feed over 400 children today for a year, so they will be able to eat for a year, but the students here also get to see that it’s an awesome opportunity to be able to do something for somebody else,” Kirkpatrick said.

Officials said this event was made possible by the most recent business on the SAU campus. Tacos for Life invested around $60,000 on the project. University leaders said there are around 800 freshmen students on campus this year.

“I think that it is a real good thing to do and it makes me feel better to be able to work with such a good program and help feed starving children,” said Sage Goodwin, a freshman at SAU.

“I think everybody, all the students, all the leaders had a great time and I feel like we did something great today,” said Joseph Ventriss, another freshman.

Regular classes at SAU begin Wednesday (Aug. 23).

Copyright 2023 KSLA. All rights reserved.