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Annabelle Celebrates Her 10th Birthday With a Donation Toward Hunger

on  May 28, 2020

Rise Against Hunger is an organization sustained by the passion and dedication of our donors and volunteers. Today, we’d like to highlight an inspiring volunteer who has been an enthusiastic presence at our meal packaging events for several years. Annabelle is ten years old, and enjoys volunteering with her family and friends. Most of all, she says she enjoys the events because she knows they are helping people.Annabelle has volunteered at five meal packaging events, but this year, she wanted to do even more. For her birthday, she called friends and relatives and requested they donate to Rise Against Hunger in lieu of gifts. She raised $300, and also donated $50.54 of her personal savings. Annabelle says, “I am passionate about helping people and ending world hunger by 2030 and making a change.” She shared that one of her favorite parts of the Rise Against Hunger Experience is  cleaning up at the end of the event!Annabelle’s most memorable volunteer experience was ringing the gong, which we ring at events to signify every 1,000 meal milestone. Her mother shared that Annabelle waited five long years for the opportunity.Annabelle wants children her age to know that volunteering can make the world a better place, and even if you donate a single dollar, you are helping someone in need. Annabelle’s goal for the future is to continue helping others and to become a firefighter. We are so honored to count Annabelle as one of our Hunger Champions, and we look forward to packaging meals with her for years to come! Annabelle is a shining example of the fact that you are never too young or old to make a difference. If her story inspired you, visit our Take Action page to find out how you can get involved, too.

About the Author

Paige Anderson is the Individual Giving Specialist for Rise Against Hunger. She focuses on donor recognition and marketing. She is passionate about contributing to the common good.

More Posts by Paige Anderson

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.