Nearly 1,100 volunteers helped make and deliver more than 81,000 meals for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank during the area’s April 20 Day of Service event.
The meal, a stovetop Italian casserole that required only adding water and heating, was developed by the U. of I.’s National Soybean Research Laboratory for maximum nutrition.
U. of I. volunteers included faculty and staff members and students, as well as Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise and
Ilesanmi Adesida, the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, who helped pack meals along with food bank director Jim Hires.
“I was so impressed with the dedication and determination of all the volunteers,” Wise said. “It was really amazing and inspiring to see everyone come together so efficiently, so effectively and so powerfully to make a difference in our local community.”
In addition to campus employees, the student-led Illini Fighting Hunger group chipped in, as did local companies who raised around $30,000 for the meals’ ingredients.
Statistics show that one in four of people within the food bank’s multicounty coverage area cannot afford adequate food and that many are children.
Lesley Lee, a U. of I. library specialist, said she brought her children to help package food and teach them the importance of giving to the community.
“I brought my children to volunteer with me because I wanted them to realize they make a significant contribution to local needs just by showing up and doing their small part,” she said. “I loved working side-by-side with my children because each bag of food we packed reiterated that they were an essential part of the team.”
Volunteers will be utilized over the next few months to pack and distribute meals with the remaining ingredients to reach the project’s goal of 146,000 meals – 1,000 meals for each year of public engagement since the U. of I. was chartered.
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