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250,000 Meals for 25 Years: Rise Against Hunger Celebrates BIG Anniversary With Community Meal Packaging Event

on  November 22, 2023

This year marks Rise Against Hunger’s 25th anniversary. That means 25 years of real impact in communities facing food insecurity, as highlighted through our Zimbabwe Celebration Series and South Africa Celebration Series shared in recent months, and 25 years of you — our Hunger Champions — coming alongside us in the work to end global hunger and making this impact possible! To celebrate this impact and recognize the integral role volunteers, donors and supporters have played in our work over the past 25 years, we came together with so many of you in Raleigh, North Carolina, this past weekend for a three-day celebration event. The three-day community meal packaging event, which took place from November 17-19 at Rise Against Hunger’s flagship warehouse in Raleigh, kicked off on Friday night with a speech from Ray Buchanan, Rise Against Hunger’s founder. He spoke about how much the 25th anniversary means to him and how the meals packaged make an impact for children and families around the world. It was then time to make an impact together as volunteers joined us to package meals that will go on to nourish lives around the world!  Throughout the weekend, more than 1,400 volunteers worked to collectively package 250,000 meals! With families, previous Rise Against Hunger staff members, long-time supporters and new Hunger Champions all volunteering, it was truly a community event. A gong rang out for every 5,000 meals packaged during the shifts each day, reminding everyone of the impact being made together. The meals packaged this weekend will continue our impact as we work to end hunger; the meals will be distributed to communities affected by food insecurity in countries across the globe.    On Saturday, the celebration also included a gathering at the nearby Compass Rose Brewery. Volunteers and Rise Against Hunger staff mingled and celebrated the 25th anniversary with music, food, face painting and other family-friendly activities. It was a weekend full of fun, celebration, action and impact in recognition of our 25th anniversary. Check out the photos below for a recap of the weekend:

Thank you, Hunger Champions, for your support, both during the past 25 years and moving forward! Together, we can end world hunger. Learn more ways you can take action and make an impact by visiting our How You Can Help page. 

Interested in learning more?
Our team is ready to help!

To find out more about meal packaging and how to organize your own event, fill out the form and a Rise Against Hunger team member will contact you to start planning. If you’ve connected with our team or filled out this form previously, no need to submit it again. A Rise Against Hunger team member will be in touch soon!
 

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About the Author

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.