By JOSHUA THOMAS

C-S-E Editor

FORT PLAIN — During the third annual local Stop Hunger Now event, held Saturday morning at the Harry Hoag Elementary School, 120 volunteers packaged 40,000 meals that will be distributed to hungry people throughout the world.

The date of the event was pushed up from June to March, and while it has also been condensed from two packaging locations to one, twice as many meals were packaged this year than at the 2011 event, and $2,000 more than last year.

"This packaging event put us at 100,000 meals for three years, which is 100,000 people fed around the world," said Event Coordinator Nancy Ryan, Pastor of the Fort Plain Reformed Church.

Prior to the packaging event Saturday, the community donated $10,000 to purchase the food. "We met our goal and that's thanks to the community," said Ryan, explaining that donations were received from Palatine Bridge, Nelliston, Canajoharie, Fort Plain, St. Johnsville and Stone Arabia. Ryan added, "It's not just one group, it's everybody — schools, Liberty, churches — it's representative of the whole community."

Six meals — each consisting of soy, dried vegetables, a vitamin pack and rice — were placed into each bag, which were then packed in boxes and loaded onto a truck parked out front, the destination being the new New England Stop Hunger Now site in Boston, Massachusetts. The meals will be stored in a warehouse until they are needed. They have a shelf life of two years, though Ryan noted that the mails are usually shipped out in six months or less.

While the program frequently ships meals overseas, they also spring to action during disasters in the United States. Ryan said she was recently informed that during Superstorm Sandy, 171,000 Stop Hunger Now meals were shipped to the Atlantic coast — to New York City, Long Island, and Connecticut — to feed people. 

"It's international, and certainly they're trying to reach third-world, starving places, but it's a program that works in emergency situations right here in our own country," commented Ryan.

When the boxes packed locally are distributed, Ryan receives word of where the meals were shipped. The food packaged in 2012 was distributed in Honduras. If a packaging event manages to put together 100,000 meals, the organizers are able to decide the destination of the food.

Ryan said that she's incredibly impressed with the community's accomplishments throughout the three events, noting that the main goal locally is "to keep the community coming together for communities and people around the world that they'll never see or know — to know that they helped." 

Ryan continued, "For this area, to come up with $10,000 is huge. I am absolutely so thrilled and proud of this community and the surrounding communities."

The event has a way of charging people up, she noted. Of Saturday's event, which flew by and was finished in just over three-and-a-half hours, "It was exciting. People were chatting and talking, young and old people working together, getting something done. They can go home today and feel really good about what they did."

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart and the hearts of everybody we helped," Ryan concluded, speaking to anybody that has had a hand in making these events a resounding, continued success.