News Center

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Hospital volunteers poised to send kids ‘packing’ – with 40,000 healthy meals

GREENWOOD, Ind. – Franciscan St. Francis Health is partnering with Pack Away Hunger to pack nutritious meals for thousands of hungry children throughout south-central Indiana and Haiti.

Volunteers will gather at the hospital’s Education and Support Services Center at 421 N. Emerson Ave., Greenwood, Saturday, Nov. 7 with the goal of assembling and packaging 40,000 meals. Pack Away Hunger (formerly Kids Against Hunger) will provide the equipment and food supplies.

“This is an ordinary but important way to address the extraordinary problems faced by hungry children in our community and abroad,” said Joe Sagorsky, who is coordinating the event, which gets under way at 9 a.m.

The lack of proper nutrition creates significant health and development consequences for individuals and has far-reaching implications for the communities, Pack Away Hunger officials said.

It’s estimated that nearly 16 million children in the United States do not have regular access to healthy meals. In developing nations, one in six children – roughly 100 million – is underweight as the result of acute and chronic malnutrition.