For most of us it is difficult to imagine going hungry for even a day or two – but in developing countries many are hungry every day. How helpless it must be for mothers when they cannot calm their starving children because there is no food to give. These are not just rumors, the facts are 25,000 people die every day from hunger or related causes. It is a fact that one child dies every six seconds from malnutrition.

These numbers were so disturbing to nonprofit entrepreneur, Ray Buchanan, that in 1998 he founded Stop Hunger Now. Rev. Buchanan is an ordained United Methodist Minister and a Vietnam Marine Corps veteran. His humanitarian efforts have grown and become a non-profit international hunger relief organization. Since 2005, the program has packaged over 39 million meals. Rev. Buchanan’s goal is to end hunger in our lifetime.

With its headquarters located in Raleigh, Stop Hunger Now, with the help of volunteers, has been able to provide food and aid to children and families in 72 countries. Most of the meals go to school lunches, orphanages and crisis situations around the world. Each packaged meal includes rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a flavoring mix including 21 vitamins and minerals. These packets have a shelf-life of five years.

When the earthquake hit Haiti, Stop Hunger Now had previously sent more than six million meals to support school feeding programs in that country. A new shipment had arrived in Haiti just one month before the disaster and made providing relief immediate.

To learn more about Stop Hunger Now, visit stophungernow.org website.

The Statesville District United Methodist Church is sponsoring a Stop Hunger Now Packaging Event on May 14, from 8:30 to 4:30 at 116 Anna Drive, Statesville. To volunteer to help package or make a donation to meals, contact coordinator Billy Hobbs at 704-437-1062 or bsparc@gmail.com. Working together we may actually “Stop Hunger Now” in our lifetime.