Rotary Club of San Marcos seeks volunteers, donations for Rise Against Hunger Project

The Rotary Club of San Marcos is preparing for its second Rise Against Hunger Experience.

The club is seeking both volunteers to help package meals and donations to purchase the food for shipment overseas on Saturday, Oct. 15 from 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m.

Rise Against Hunger (RAH) was founded in 1998. The organization was founded by Ray Buchanan, a Methodist pastor, with the goal of providing food and aid to people in need around the world and responding to disasters. Nonprofit RAH is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. but it has 28 locations across the U.S. and five overseas in Italy, India, Malaysia, South Africa and the Philippines.

The Rotary Club of San Marcos, which sponsored its first RAH “Experience in October 2021, works with the Houston RAH office. More than 150 volunteers packaged 15,000 meals (each serving six people) by the Rotary Club of San Marcos that were shipped to famine stricken Burundi, in East Africa.

Rotary Club of San Marcos’ meal packaging will be held at the First Lutheran Church on Holland Street in San Marcos. Meals packaged by volunteers, and consist of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and essential vitamins and minerals. To date, RAH has packaged over 550 million meals for distribution in 78 countries.

San Marcos Rotary is partnering with Rotary clubs in Kyle and Wimberley for this event, as well as Rotaract, the Rotary student club at Texas State University. In addition to RAH, on Oct. 15, the clubs are seeking nonperishable food donations for the Hays County Food Bank, and cash donations for the Food Bank and San Marcos School Fuel, which provides food to San Marcos students on weekends and over holidays when school meals are not served. The goal is to meet the needs of hungry people both locally and internationally.

Volunteers can signup for RAH at http://events. riseagainsthunger.org/sanmarcos2022. Contributions to the three hunger initiatives can be made out to Greater San Marcos Rotary Foundation and mailed to P.O. Box 581, San Marcos TX 78667. Gifts are tax-deductible.

Rotary is nonprofit, nonpolitical, and nonreligious. The San Marcos Rotary Club is 100 years old.