Volunteers from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham County community will help out at a MobilePack event at Eastern Mennonite University next month – the goal: to pack more than 100,000 meals to feed malnourished children around the world.
The EMU Y-Serve student club is hosting the two-day event (March 21-22) in partnership with the Harrisonburg Tacos 4 Life restaurant and the Feed My Starving Children nonprofit.
EMU students, faculty and staff, alongside volunteers from local church congregations, retirement communities, businesses and civic organizations will join together for the major meal-packing project at the EMU University Commons.
Register online for a two-hour shift at: tinyurl.com/EMUmealpack
This event is part of a larger effort by the Arkansas-based Tacos 4 Life restaurant chain to pack and donate 10 million meals by June to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
For every item sold at Tacos 4 Life locations, the company donates a portion to Feed My Starving Children, which is used to purchase Manna Packs. These rice-based nutritious meal bags are given to missions and humanitarian organizations in more than 70 countries.
Jeremy Hunter, operating partner of the Tacos 4 Life Harrisonburg location, said the 100,000 meals donated by his store for the MobilePack event at EMU amounts to a $29,000 contribution to Feed My Starving Children.
“I’m excited for us to bring the Harrisonburg community together to pack 100,000 meals,” Hunter said, adding that this is the first MobilePack event his location has partnered with. “You all at EMU have beaten JMU to the punch!”
Brian Martin Burkholder, university chaplain for EMU, said he noticed an article in the local newspaper about the restaurant’s opening and felt that its mission of feeding malnourished children aligned with Y-Serve’s goal of serving others as the hands and feet of Jesus.
“As a university steeped in the Anabaptist faith tradition, EMU has emphasized companioning marginalized people and offering whatever resources we have to meet human need,” he said. “This is another way we can practice our core values of peace and justice and active faith.”
EMU senior Halie Mast, president of Y-Serve, helped organize the volunteer event.
“This is a huge project that our service club has taken on this year, and it’s probably the largest project I’ve ever helped plan,” she said. “A lot of time, planning, and prayer have gone into this undertaking, and I hope that Christ will be elevated through this work.”
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Chris Graham
