Manna Food Bank reports that “1 out of 6 people in America face hunger yet there is enough food to feed every single person in the world. Forty eight million Americans—including 16.2 million children lack the resources to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis.” While the issue of hunger may seem too overwhelming to solve, several Paint Branch clubs are tackling the issue head on.

The National Honor Society is partnering with Manna Food Bank to provide Montgomery County elementary school students with healthy food to sustain them over the weekend when they don’t have access to the free and reduced meals at school. Forty eight students at Greencastle Elementary are now receiving Smart Sacks each week thanks to Manna Food Center and the Paint Branch NHS. “Volunteers from NHS work every Tuesday during LAP to pack the meals, and the following day, they deliver the meals to our partner school,” the NHS advisor, Ms. Kimmel, explains with great enthusiasm. She expressed her excitement about the program and explained, “I am so pleased to see our students committed to making a difference in our community.”

The SGA recently organized a school wide canned food drive to help stock the shelves of Manna Food Center.  A major food distributer for Montgomery County, Manna feeds approximately 3,300 families with their regular food program alone. Manna works with over 360 community groups to collect and distribute over 3.3 million pounds of food to their clients every year. Paint Branch did its part and donated a couple of hundred pounds of food.

On December 3^rd, the Environmental Club hosted a hunger banquet. According to Environmental Club Advisor Ms. Sondak, the event afforded the group “a great opportunity to experience a situation where they might not have enough food to eat.”  When students entered the room, they were assigned a social class and a story of a person living that class. Food was distributed based on class with the higher class enjoying a meal of lasagna, fruit and cake and the lower class eating rice and tortilla chips. “It’s amazing to see how students become caring compassionate individuals when they see their peers not having enough food,” commented Ms. Sondak. Overall, the hunger banquet was a success and achieved its purpose of opening the Paint Branch community’s eyes to the serious issue of hunger.

Key Club, an international student-led service organization, is continuing a lunch packing program that benefits local homeless shelters. Key Club president Tina Vo explained that on average they “make around 60-65 paper bag lunches that include a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a napkin and a small snack (granola or fruit snacks). Then, after we’re done, someone delivers all the lunches to Shepards Table or the Elizabeth House for the homeless.”

While the statistics about hunger may be incredibly intimidating, Paint Branch has stepped up the challenge of trying to end world hunger projects.