The Million Meal Project Reaches 1 Million Meals Packaged With Rise Against Hunger
Editor’s Note: Rise Against Hunger’s work to end world hunger would not be possible without the passion and commitment of others to come alongside us in our mission. The Blumberg family from Edgemont, New York, did just that through meal packaging. They started the Million Meal Project to engage their community in packaging 1 million meals, and they recently reached that milestone! Their efforts have helped alleviate global hunger; the volunteer-packaged meals have been distributed to communities affected by food insecurity in Uganda, Vietnam, the Philippines, Timor-Leste and more. Keep reading to hear Mariquita Blumberg’s story about why the family started the Million Meal Project and why they’re passionate about helping to end hunger.
In June 2022, our local civic organization in Westchester, New York, hosted a meal packaging event with Rise Against Hunger, where 50 volunteers in our community packaged 10,000 meals. Our family worked at the boxing station. Within fifteen minutes, we had a system and were in the zone, settling into a steady rhythm of labeling, counting and packing. And with each box we taped, we knew a child was eating for an entire school year. Great music, intermittent gong blasts notifying us of our progress, seeing people of all ages hard at work, and facilitation by Rise Against Hunger’s Rob Whitaker made the whole experience energizing, inspiring and rewarding.
When our family reflected on the experience, we agreed that we wanted to do more of these meal packaging events. As parents, we had been looking to no avail for an impactful, hands-on community service opportunity for our kids when they were younger. We knew others in our community felt the same way. So, we started the Million Meal Project to package 1 million meals with Rise Against Hunger over five years.
We spent the summer of 2022 planning — creating a website, devising a fundraising strategy, developing partnerships with our school district, building a mailing list and finding spaces to host our events. We held our first event, a soft launch, in October, followed soon after by our first community event right before Thanksgiving. We were blown away by the response from the community, with over 400 volunteers showing up to pack over 50,000 meals.
In 2023, we held 16 packaging events, boxing almost 475,000 meals. 2024 grew again, with 19 events and an additional 465,000 meals. Each year, our community events got bigger and more impactful and the movement grew. New people came to volunteer because they heard about the great experience people had at the previous year’s event. And every event led to at least one, and sometimes two or three, events with a new community — schools, companies, houses of worship and more.
Our experience highlighted a few things:
First, communities are thirsting for ways to have an impact and give back, especially those with young kids. Almost all of our events were oversubscribed, with many people coming to several events per year. Volunteers, ages 4 to 90, always left feeling incredibly fulfilled, and we usually met or exceeded our packaging goals. On the way out, so many people said, “Let us know when you are holding the next event — we’ll be there.”
Second, these events bring communities together. Teenagers signed up to be at the same shift with their friends to do the funnel station together. Families of local baseball teams met for the first time at a packaging event to then know each other once the season kicked off. Our elementary schools used these events to have parents and children from the different schools meet before they all started middle school.
And finally, while most have the luxury of spending two hours on a weekend at a meal packaging event, not all have the capacity to give money. Thanks to the Rise Against Hunger team, running these events was easy. But the fundraising for this effort was sometimes hard. How great would it be for a corporation to fund communities coming together to have such a huge impact? It is something I hope happens more in the future.
On December 14, 2024, we packaged our millionth meal, three years ahead of schedule! That’s a testament to the great mission, the engaging events and the team at Rise Against Hunger. As my family wraps up our goal, we are looking to find another family in our area interested in taking over this project. We look forward to participating, this time just as volunteers, in packaging the next million meals in our community. Back to the boxing station!
Inspired to take action like the Blumberg family did? Take the first step to hosting your own meal packaging event by filling out the form here.