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A Texas Family Packages Meals Together to Fight World Hunger

on  March 29, 2023

Ending global hunger is a family affair for the Sullivans in Texas! Laurie Sullivan has hosted Rise Against Hunger Experience meal packaging events since 2019, bringing together family and close friends to package nutritious meals for people facing hunger around the world. On March 25, 2023, Laurie’s family and friends participated in their fourth event and packaged over 2,500 meals. It was a day for fun and giving back! We caught up with Laurie about why Rise Against Hunger meal packaging events are so important for her friends and family — check it out below!  

What was like it to bring family and friends together to package 2,500 meals at a Rise Against Hunger Experience meal packaging event?

It was great! We had a wonderful time with Justin, our event coordinator. He was actually part of our event last year as well, so we had a good routine going. We had 15 people attending, all family and close friends. 

Why was it important to you to have your friends and family get involved? 

This is our fourth year doing a Rise Against Hunger event. We were looking for something that we could do together to give back, so we gave this a try and we’ve been enjoying it every year since.

Can you share what the meal packaging event was like? What was your favorite part of the event? 

We had two production lines going, one on each side of the table and we create a little competition between the teams. It’s all fun but keeps us motivated. This year we especially enjoyed the gong; each time we completed a box someone would bang the gong and we all cheered. It was so much fun!

This wasn’t the first time that your family packaged meals with us. After hosting your first meal packaging event in 2019, what about that experience resonated with you and made you want to continue hosting more meal packaging events?

We love doing the event together with the family. It gives us something meaningful to do while we’re together and we enjoy working as a team. I think it actually makes us a little closer knowing that we can get together and do something so powerful.

What does Rise Against Hunger’s mission to end global hunger mean to you?

It’s a wonderful mission and right in line with our family’s perspective and belief that it’s so important to do whatever we can to help others. 

What would you say to other people who are interested in engaging and being part of Rise Against Hunger’s movement to end global hunger?

We would say, “Do it!” It’s easy to set it up and the volunteers can manage their own registration and donations online. It is a great way to spend an afternoon and do something that really matters.We love to see friends and family come together in support of the mission to end global hunger! Are you interested in packaging meals with your family, friends or group — like Laurie Sullivan did? Redfin includes volunteering with Rise Against Hunger as one of “Houston’s Best-Kept Secrets” in Texas. Get involved by hosting your own Rise Against Hunger Experience meal packaging event! 

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!
 

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About the Author

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.