Rutgers Prep Partners with Rise Against Hunger to Package 50,000 Meals for Hunger Relief

On Wednesday, September 18th, 2019, students and faculty at Rutgers Prep, in partnership with Rise Against Hunger - an international hunger relief non-profit organization with a mission to end hunger by 2030 - packaged more than 50,000 meals to be sent worldwide to communities in need. The meal-packing event involved students in all three divisions, from our youngest children in the lower school helping to roll silverware, to the middle and upper school students measuring out ingredients, packing, sealing, and boxing up complete meals that will be shipped to areas of greatest need.

“Today, over the next two hours, we’re going to come together, and I don’t want you to think that we’re just packaging meals,” said Nick DiMare, Assistant Community Engagement Manager for Rise Against Hunger, in an address to students before kicking off the day’s activities. “At Rise Against Hunger, we aren’t in the meal packing industry. Instead we’re coming together, and we’re going to package hope - and we’re going to package opportunity - for children around the world.

The 2019 event marks the third year that Rutgers Prep has partnered with Rise Against Hunger, and this year that partnership has reached a remarkable milestone: more than 100,000 meals packed by members of the Rutgers Prep community since the two organizations first joined forces.

"We are so thrilled to have held our third-annual Rise Against Hunger event, particularly because today we surpassed the 100,000 meal mark,” said Eireann Corrigan '95, Assistant Principal in the Upper School. "The best part of this year's program was hearing the excited conversations in our hallways in the days leading up to the event. Our students have learned to look forward to the Day On for Service and the opportunity it provides to be a part of a global effort to eradicate hunger by 2030.”

“We’re all very fortunate students here, coming to this school,” said student council president Gurnoor Virdi ’20, “and it’s really important that we give back to the communities that don’t have what we have.”

Every year, Rutgers Prep sets a day aside to give students and teachers the opportunity to participate in a community-wide community service event. Rather than thinking of this day as a day off from school, it has been named Day On for Service.

“The chance for our students to see the value that Rutgers Prep attaches to helping others provides our students with a hands-on lesson about compassion and community,” said Stacy McMillen, Assistant Principal in the Middle School.