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United Together Against Hunger: United Packages 300,000 Meals For People Facing Food Insecurity

on  July 20, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted so many aspects of people’s routines — and that’s no different for us at Rise Against Hunger. CDC guidelines and safety measures led to over 550 postponements and cancellations of Rise Against Hunger Experience meal packaging events, subsequently depleting our meal inventory.

Our meals are important to help us to meet the needs of children and families who are counting on us now more than ever, so Rise Against Hunger introduced an adjusted version of our meal packaging activities that strictly follows CDC guidelines and local regulations and maintains the utmost safety for our volunteers, people we serve and our staff while also providing volunteers an opportunity during this time to help those facing hunger around the world.”

United has partnered with Rise Against Hunger since 2016 and, during this unprecedented time, has continued to support our mission,” says Karen Noe, Senior Global Account Executive at Rise Against Hunger. In June, United became the first corporate partner to host a Rise Against Hunger Experience using this adjusted method! From June 8-19, United employees at three major U.S. airports, Dulles International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and San Francisco International Airport, safely worked in shifts to collectively package almost 300,000 nutritious meals.United employees at Dulles International Airport (IAD) in Virginia were the first to package in this multi-site, multi-day event. From June 8-12, they were scheduled to package 175,000 meals. They not only packaged those meals, but they did so in less time than expected! Yasmin Ibrahim, Rise Against Hunger’s Community Engagement Manager in the Washington, D.C. area, said, “When we started planning and executing the event, we weren’t sure how many volunteers we would get throughout the week. But from day one, we had a consistent flow of volunteers, many of whom had participated in past meal packaging events! Everyone kept coming back day in and day out, which led us to hitting our goal two days early.”The packaging continued on June 10 at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) where United employees were able to package over 12,000 meals in a single day! Across the country in New Jersey, Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) staff joined in to help United reach their goal. During the week of June 15, United packaged over 110,000 more meals at Newark.In response to the shortage of our meal inventory, these nearly 300,000 meals packaged by United were significant in helping us to support the people we serve, including through our COVID-19 Relief & Resilience Plan. They helped complete three containers going to three different countries; IAD’s meals were shipped to our in-country partner ORPHANetwork in Nicaragua, EWR’s meals were shipped to Somalia for distribution by partner American Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa, and SFO’s meals were shipped to Vietnam for partner Children of Vietnam. “Together, we found this perfect cross-pollination of essential services — United Airlines is open for business and Rise Against Hunger needs extra muscle to reach their large meal goals. We are proud to partner with Rise Against Hunger and will continue to help advance their mission,” said Kristen Johnson, Global Community Engagement Manager of United Airlines.

While the events may have looked different from pre-coronavirus Rise Against Hunger Experiences, the United volunteers were still able to make a big impact in supporting communities facing hunger and the volunteers had fun doing so! “For a lot of returning volunteers, the modified format was definitely an adjustment, but after about 15 minutes, everyone found their groove and it felt like nothing had ever changed,” Yasmin said. “Even with the abundant spacing for safety, everyone found a way to have a great time with music blaring and conversations across the room with their coworkers.”

We are so grateful to United for their ongoing commitment to furthering our mission to end hunger — even in the face of unique challenges. If you’re ready to follow United’s lead and package meals with our adjusted setup, you can learn more and get started here!

About the Author

Hannah Payne is the Public Relations & Communications Manager at Rise Against Hunger. She facilitates communication between Rise Against Hunger and the media.

More Posts by Hannah Payne

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We’re looking forward to working together! To learn more about hosting a meal packaging event, complete the interest form, and a Rise Against Hunger team member will be in touch soon to guide you through the planning process. Together, we can end global hunger — one meal at a time.

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.