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Houston Food Blogger Rallies Community for a One-of-a-Kind Meal Packaging Experience

on  February 18, 2020

Who says ending hunger can’t be fun? When Houston-based food blogger Abbas Dhanani (otherwise known as HoustonEatz) first packaged meals with Rise Against Hunger, it sparked an idea to host an event of his own — but not just any event! Incorporating his own unique brand of creativity and passion for food, Abbas engaged his friends, family and community members to package 25,000+ meals. Read more about his journey with Rise Against Hunger below.Q: How did you start HoustonEatz?A: HoustonEatz started as a way for me to show my friends what I was eating, and where I was eating. I’ve always been really into food and exploring new restaurants. I started a blog which very quickly turned into an Instagram account, which for the first few years was just for my friends. Around 2017 it started to take off, restaurants started inviting me out and it took off from there.Q: What is the coolest experience you’ve had since starting HoustonEatz?A: I can’t pinpoint just one cool experience — overall, food is my passion, so being seen as the guy that people come to for food recommendations is such a big honor. For people to associate me with food, especially in a city like Houston where we have probably the best food the U.S. has to offer, is a huge honor. That’s really the coolest part.Q: How did you first hear about Rise Against Hunger?A: I had never heard about Rise Against Hunger before, but I was part of Islamic Relief’s email list. I was scrolling through and saw an email that said ‘Urgent: Volunteers Needed.’ I had been wanting to do something to give back. As I was doing the Rise Against Hunger meal pack with Islamic Relief, I was thinking to myself, I know this many people — I have a big following and a big family as well, so what keeps me from doing something like this?Q: What was the experience like scheduling the event and recruiting volunteers?A: I wanted to pick a Sunday that wouldn’t conflict with football. So I thought, why not do it on the Sunday after the Super Bowl? The first thing I did was I made sure I had a team backing me — a few friends that I told, ‘Hey guys, I’m thinking about doing this and want to make sure I have your support.’ I’m blessed with a lot of great people around me. Right off the bat, anyone I told about the event said, ‘Yes, whatever you need, we’re on board.’ I messaged people close to me who I thought would be interested in doing this. Just like that, I gathered 50-60 volunteers. I didn’t want to stop there. I wanted to create an event that everyone could come to and make a difference. I posted on Facebook and on HoustonEatz. Before I posted on HoustonEatz, we were up to about 70 volunteers, and then before the day was even over, we were up to 120 volunteers. That was a month before the event. Around 105 volunteers showed up. We packaged 25,046 meals.Q: We hear you had a food truck at the event. What was that like?A: It’s HoustonEatz at the end of the day. I wanted to feed my volunteers, since they are doing such a good thing. I wanted to make sure they were fed. I wanted to do something fun. I have a good relationship with this food truck called Fat Pockets. We had a logo made just for the event — a HoustonEatz and Fat Pockets logo.Q: What about the event t-shirts?A: The HoustonEatz t-shirts were inspired by a rapper in Houston who has his own logo. I did a spinoff of that. I wanted it to be something that people would buy even if they weren’t coming to the event, because all of the proceeds that I made from the shirt went to the meal pack. A really good friend of mine helped me design it. I wanted people to buy it because they liked the design and would help raise money for this cause.Q: What was the most exciting part of the event?A: On the day of, I was actually pretty nervous. I hadn’t done anything like that before. One thing I have to say about Robby [Rise Against Hunger Houston Community Engagement Manager] and Rise Against Hunger overall — they just make it so easy to do this. As soon as the event started, to see how much people got into it and got competitive, as well as the all-around support, was the most exciting thing for me.Q: What do you hope to accomplish in the future with your platform on Instagram?A: I want to keep growing what I’m doing right now. I want to keep it as authentic as possible. As far as this event goes, since I’ve grown this platform to where it is now, I thought I could use it for good. Since Rise Against Hunger is food-related as well, it’s a great thing to do. The turnout was so good and everyone had such a great time that I’m thinking about using this platform to do this event every year.We are so grateful to Abbas for helping to spread the word about our mission to end hunger. Ready to host your own event? Fill out our brief interest form to get started today!

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About the Author

Maggie is Rise Against Hunger's Director of Marketing and Communications and has been a team member since 2016. Maggie works to spread the word about the mission to end hunger and to engage people globally to take action.

More Posts by Maggie Luckadoo

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.