Students, faculty and volunteers work on packaging meals.IF YOU GO* What: Feed My Starving Children MobilePack event.* When: 8:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. today and Sunday.* Where: Boyd-Buchanan School, 4650 Buccaneer Trail.* Admission: Free.* Information: To volunteer or donate, go to www.changetheworldchattanooga.org.
The Jett Gymnasium at Boyd-Buchanan School was a hot mess at the end of the two-hour session Friday morning, but a little rice on the floor here and a few cellophane gloves wafting in the breeze there didn’t detract from the good feeling volunteers took away.
About 175 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from the school, smaller groups from several other schools and numerous adult volunteers, packed 34,560 enriched rice meals — enough to feed 95 children every day for a year — as part of a MobilePack event for the Feed My Starving Children organization.
“I know a kid, in a couple of days, is going to smile and have hope,” said fifth-grader Emma Owens. “They don’t have to worry about the future.”
The event, which began Thursday and continues through Sunday night, has a goal of packing 1.5 million meals for children around the world. The organization’s previous MobilePack event in Chattanooga last winter assembled 1.2 million meals.