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Take a “Leap" Toward Making a Difference

on  February 28, 2020

Once every four years, an extra day on our calendar helps keep time — Leap Day. Here at Rise Against Hunger, we see it as an extra day to serve those in need around the globe. Learn more below about a few different ways you can spend your Leap Day this year!

Create Your Own Fundraiser Right at Home:

Did you know you can host your own fundraiser without even leaving your computer? You can invite your friends and family to help us end hunger with three easy steps:

  1. Create your own page.
  2. Spread the word.
  3. Make an impact for people in need.

To engage in supporting our efforts to end world hunger, get started now!Your birthday plans this year can also turn into a special day for someone else. Share your birthday with others by inviting your family and friends to donate to Rise Against Hunger. What’s better than celebrating another year by making a difference in the lives of others

Volunteer:

Do you want to make an impact that can be greater than yourself? Spend your Leap Day volunteering your time to help others in need. At Rise Against Hunger, we host meal packaging events around the globe, therefore, we’re always looking for volunteers at our U.S. locations. As a volunteer, you can contribute to our mission to end world hunger by 2030.Find your nearest location and complete our volunteer interest form today!

Give Back to Someone in Need:

For 7-year-old Jefry, living in a small village with his family and receiving Rise Against Hunger meals at school is part of his daily routine in Honduras. For us at Rise Against Hunger, we know that in order to provide an education and brighter future for other children like Jefry, our efforts to support school feeding programs in various countries are important. Since receiving meals, Jefry is more energetic and has made much improvement in school. To help a child like Jefry or a family in need, donate now or take action now.

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

Janae Curtain is the Manager of Digital Marketing at Rise Against Hunger. Janae leads the development and execution of digital marketing initiatives including social media, email marketing, digital advertising and more!

More Posts by Janae Curtain

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.