• Other Global Locations
  • Search
Host an Event
Donate
  • Meal Packaging

Greenwich Country Day School Nurtures Hearts and Makes an Impact

  • Jen Donnalley

on  December 6, 2023

Editor’s Note: Every year volunteers of all ages help end hunger by participating in Rise Against Hunger Experience meal packaging events. These volunteer-packaged meals go on to nourish lives around the world. Greenwich Country Day School is one of our amazing meal packaging partners; they’ve packaged 400,000 meals since 2018! We’re thrilled to have Jen Donnalley, the director of the Center for Public Good at the school, share about the school’s meal packaging efforts and why helping to end hunger is important to the school.At Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich, Connecticut, we believe in not only educating young minds, but also nurturing hearts that empathize and engage with global challenges. For this reason, our school has worked with Rise Against Hunger for six years. Our partnership with Rise Against Hunger allows us to make a positive impact in the world and enables our students to help alleviate hunger.Greenwich Country Day School began working with Rise Against Hunger in 2018 when our annual Walkathon theme was food insecurity. We began with a student event, with about 90 students coming together to package 10,000 meals. We’ve been addicted to the gong ever since that first event! Our school has since held 16 meal packaging events (with five of the events happening just this year!) and expanded to involve employees, alumni, families and parents of alumni, as well as the students, to make an impact together.

The buzz of a Rise Against Hunger meal packaging event leaves everyone feeling connected to the cause, each other and the mission of the school. That is why this year, in 2023, the school decided to host more meal packaging events than any other year so far. We hosted five meal packaging events from January to November, with seniors, ninth graders, staff and more participating throughout the year. Our final event of the year on November 17 had 400 people come together to package 50,000 meals.

Beyond this year’s events, as a community, Greenwich Country Day School has packed over 400,000 meals since 2018, and we are determined to get to 1 million! These meal packaging events are an incredible way for our community to come together, and we hope to work alongside Rise Against Hunger until zero hunger is a reality around the world!The success of Rise Against Hunger is not just in the numbers of people they are reaching; it’s also in the awareness and compassion ignited in those participating in their meal packaging events. Greenwich Country Day School remains dedicated to lighting a fire under the next generation of change-makers, and we appreciate Rise Against Hunger for providing the spark.We’re so grateful to committed partners like Greenwich Country Day School for joining us in the movement to end global hunger! Find out ways you can get involved and make an impact, too!

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!
 

Perfect for all kinds of organizations:

  • Corporations
  • Civic & Service Clubs
  • Communities of Faith
  • Colleges & Universities

About the Author

Jen Donnalley is the director of the Center for Public Good at Greenwich Country Day School in Connecticut.

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.