Hungry to help

Caroline Rubin wanted the university community to package 10,000 boxed meals to send to impoverished nations around the globe. But she needed $2,500 to accomplish that goal.

The junior government and politics major began speaking to an array of student organizations in July and ended up procuring $2,540 to help with the cause. About 100 volunteers donned blue hair nets and plastic gloves at Stamp Student Union Wednesday to package 10,008 bags of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables, flavoring mix and 21 essential vitamins and minerals to be shipped to starving individuals worldwide.

Rubin coordinated the event with Stop Hunger Now — an international hunger relief organization that coordinates food distribution. According to the organization's website, it has served 76 countries and packed a total of 54,448,155 meals nationwide as of last night; there have been 775,052 packaged this week alone.

And Rubin said she wanted the opportunity to allow the campus community to contribute to helping alleviate hunger in other countries.

"I first participated in a Stop Hunger Now event in June at my church from home," Rubin said. "I loved it, and I wanted to do it again. I thought it would be fun, help a lot of people and also spread awareness to college students who might not know a lot about the issue of world hunger."

While her passion for the event stemmed from her experience with the organization this summer, Rubin said she's been interested in volunteer work since she was a child. She said she went to Honduras on a service trip her senior year in high school and took a world hunger class at this university — and both experiences further piqued her interest in helping others.

"My service trip to Honduras my senior year in high school really changed my life," Rubin said. "I'm really interested in [community service]."

Alpha Phi Omega Vice President of Service Barbara Rodriguez said she commends Rubin for taking the initiative to coordinate a large community service event all on her own.

"[Rubin] doing this, it was incredible," Rodriguez said. "You need a lot of people to pull something like this off, and I'm really impressed."

And Rubin said the turnout at Wednesday's event exceeded her expectations.

"I didn't realize this many individuals cared so strongly about this issue," she said. "It's amazing."

Although she hopes to hold the event again next year, she will make a few major changes to the planning process, Rubin said.

"If I had the opportunity to do this all over again, I would definitely aim for more," she said. "I started planning for this in July, but I would start fundraising much earlier. Next time, I would definitely set higher goals."

Volunteers at Wednesday's event came from several co-sponsoring student organizations, including community service fraternity APO, the Student Government Association, the Office of Community Service Learning, Circle K, The Love Movement, MaryPIRG, Primannum Honor Society, Sigma Chi and Books Across Borders. APO alone donated more than $1,100 to the cause, according to Rubin.

Becca Arsham, a senior family science major and president of The Love Movement, said she wanted her organization to be involved because she supported the event's devotion to helping others.

"The Love Movement feels really strongly about helping other groups that help big causes," Arsham said. "[Rubin] is working on this on her own, which is extremely amazing. It's commendable, it really is."

egan@umdbk.com