Rotarian Seth Nagendran has yet to celebrate his first anniversary as a member of the Rotary Club of Belleville, but he has well earned his spot as the Chair of the Kids Against Hunger Committee. Kids Against Hunger has a powerful history. In 1999, a businessman named Richard Proudfit officially founded Kids Against Hunger with a mission that still drives the organization today -- to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the U.S. and around the world. Twenty-five years earlier, Richard had seen hunger and poverty when he travelled to Honduras and that changed his life forever, dedicating his life and resources to solving world hunger. Since then, KAH has delivered over 162 million meals to children and families in need across 65 countries. That's the power of one person's commitment, multiplied by thousands of volunteers like Rotarians.
The KAH meal is a special formulated rice-soy casserole packed with nutrients. Each package contains rice, fortified vegetable protein, dehydrated vegetables and a carefully balanced blend of 21 vitamins and minerals. One single meal pack can feed up to six people. Efficient and impactful! About one-third of the meals packaged stay in Canada, supporting food banks, shelters, reserves and community programs. The rest are sent globally wherever the need is greatest. In Canada, 1 in 8 households is food insecure. That's over 4 million Canadian who don't know where their next meal is coming from. 1 in 6 Canadian children under the age of 18 is dealing with food insecurity as we speak. That's why Kids Against Hunger exists. That's why we do what we do.
Seth acknowledges he couldn't have done this packaging event without the support of many in the community. A special thank you to Loyalist College for hosting the event and providing a team of volunteers who worked alongside everyone else. Other community groups included the Quinte Skyhawks, Belleville Soccer, Holiday Inn Express, Belleville Spirit Football League, who put together their own teams of volunteers. Sponsors included Rotarian Jared Bellemare, People Minded Business (Rotarians Paul Fleming and Janeen Halliwell), the Rotary Clubs of Wellington and Campbellford, Rotarian Kelly McKinney and Rotarian and Past Chair of KAH, Jennifer Savini. On top of that, 100 volunteers who came and in one hour and thirty minutes, packaged 16,200 meals.
Beyond nutrition, every meal carries a message that somewhere, a group of people cared enough to spend their time making sure a stranger didn't go hungry. That matters. That gives dignity. That gives hope.