Where to buy dinner for 23 cents
Posted September 1, 2010 1:55 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Last November, second-year biology student Marieanne Tavakoli showed up at a fundraising event at Trent University grouchy and on an empty stomach.
It was her first time packaging food for Kids Against Hunger Canada, ironically, the Peterborough branch of a charity which sends specially-designed meals to hungry children around the world.
“I had no idea how much of an impact it would have on me,” she told CityNews.ca on Wednesday.
Tavakoli has even tasted the vitamin-fortified soy-rice casserole formulated by food scientists and declared it “delicious.”
“All you do is add water, throw it in a pot, and you’re ready to go,” she said. “It beats Kraft Dinner any day.”
Launched in Minnesota in 1999, Kids Against Hunger is the result of engineer Richard Proudfit’s eye-opening experience working with a medical relief team after the 1974 hurricane in Honduras.
What followed were attempts to feed the poorest of the poor, as Proudfit calls them, using surplus food from manufacturers and distributors and then less-refined versions of the current food package.
The blend used now fills the basic nutritional needs of almost any child and takes into account the wide range of cultural tastes and religious customs around the world – and costs a mere 23 cents a package.
The organization has since grown to 80 satellite operations in the U.S. and Canada, including the one in Peterborough, which donates one third of its meals to the local community and the remaining two thirds overseas.
Last year alone, more than 48 million meals were shipped from North America to dozens of countries, including Haiti, Guatemala, and Tanzania.
Tavakoli has planned an event for later this month, when she hopes to package at least 90,000 meals and reach her fundraising goal of $15,000. She has enlisted the help of Lululemon, Tommy Hilfiger and Cineplex Odeon, which have each donated items for a silent auction.
So far, she is about $10,000 short of her target, but she thinks once people hear about Kids Against Hunger, they will be as inspired as she was to help out.
“I’m hopeful and optimistic,” she said. “Maybe there’s a generous person out there. Maybe it takes just one person and it will be a domino effect.”
Tavakoli’s event takes place on Sept. 18 at Swansea Community Recreation Centre, 15 Waller Avenue, from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information or to volunteer, email marieannetava@trentu.ca.
To donate to Kids Against Hunger Canada, click here.
