One Thousand Meals Packaged by United Way Hunger Heroes

United Way of Greater New Bedford hosted its first Hunger Heroes Spring Edition on Saturday, April 10. The goal of the event was to package 1,000 meals and snacks for kids at local schools to have over April vacation. Almost 100 volunteers spent a combined 219 hours sorting, organizing, and packing bags full of kid-friendly and family-friendly foods.

Each package contained a combination of non-perishable items such as pasta, sauce, healthy juice boxes, cereal, peanut butter, jelly, macaroni and cheese, instant mashed potatoes, canned soup, healthy granola bars, canned/packet tuna, sugar-free apple sauce, and sugar-free fruit cups.

Most of the food required to put these packages together was donated through local drives at businesses and schools, including those that will be receiving these packages for distribution to students. Food was also donated by the YMCA Southcoast Full Plate Project.

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United Way partnered with Fun 107 and 1420 WBSM on the Hunger Heroes Food Drop on Saturday, April 3 to collect a total of 2,670 pounds of donated food, and United Way purchased additional items to enhance each of the packages.

By meeting the goal of 1,000 meal packages, school-aged kids from Fairhaven, Freetown, New Bedford, Old Rochester Regional, and Wareham school districts will have food over April Vacation.

“We had an amazing few weeks between the Hunger Heroes Food Drop and the Hunger Heroes packaging event,” said Victoria Grasela, VP of Marketing and Community Engagement for United Way of Greater New Bedford. “This Spring Edition of Hunger Heroes has been in the works for many years, and we couldn’t be happier with how everything went thanks to our amazing community!”