Annual UM Pack-a-Thon this Weekend

Feed the Hunger sets goal of packing 150,000 meals for impoverished

OXFORD, Miss. – A University of Mississippi student-led campaign to provide thousands of meals for impoverished children in Kenya, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Jamaica and rural Kentucky is once again counting on the Oxford and Lafayette County community for support.

The ninth annual Feed the Hunger Pack-a-Thon will be held at Powerhouse Community Arts Center on University Avenue from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday (Feb. 22) and 9-11 a.m., noon-2 p.m. and 3-5 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 23). Money for the event is raised through donations from campus organizations, local businesses and churches.

The goal this year is to pack 150,000 meals. One of the locations that UM partners with that will receive food packed here in Oxford is an orphanage in India. The orphanage takes in children who have been rescued from being sex slaves or slaves working in a rock quarry.

Participants are also asked to bring donations for the local Love Packs program, which provides food for Lafayette County students who may not have meals over the weekend. Items being collected include peanut butter crackers, pop-top soup or ravioli, and fruit cups.

The Ole Miss pack-a-thon was launched in 2010, and UM was the first university in the nation to partner with the nonprofit organization. At least six other universities have since launched Feed the Hunger programs.

To learn more about Feed the Hunger, go to http://www.feedthehunger.org. Volunteers can sign up on-site or in advance by emailing OleMissFTH@gmail.com.