Students prepare 10,000 meals for pantries, WABI reports
WABI (Channel 5) covered a meal-packing event held at the University of Maine as part of the Maine Hunger Dialogue. About 150 students and staff from universities and colleges throughout the state prepared 10,000 nutritious, nonperishable meals for college food pantries. “The organizers come and they bring all the bulk ingredients and then we work hard to package them up. We have faculty working next to students — wearing hair nets — working toward a common cause and making a difference,” said Kate Garland, a horticulturist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. The Maine Hunger Dialogue grew out of the UMaine Extension Maine Harvest for Hunger program, which since 2000 has donated 1,788,400 pounds of surplus fruits and vegetables to people, soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters in the state. Organizers say the dialogue is part of a national movement to raise awareness of hunger on every college campus, according to the report.