spirit on this campus for community service," he said as the room refilled. "It's a big part of who we are."
Brown told the crowd that Stop Hunger Now ships many of its meals to schools. Running feeding programs through schools has multiple long-term benefits, he said, including increasing academic performance and prompting women to postpone marriage and to bear fewer children.
The 25-cent meals, all dehydrated, consist of a chicken-flavored vitamin tablet, vegetable flakes, soy and rice. They are poured into bags, which are calibrated to make sure they weigh 380 to 385 grams each and then sealed and packed into boxes. A gong is banged after every five boxes are filled to indicate when roughly 1,000 meals have been readied.
Meals have a shelf life of five years but are usually eaten within three. The contents of each bag, when opened and boiled, can feed six people.
Durham Academy's volunteers began packing around 1:45 p.m. The first gong was banged, by first-grader Camille Capehart, at 1:54 p.m. Other gongs followed in short order -- 1:59 p.m., 2:05 p.m., 2:10 p.m., 2:14 p.m., 2:22 p.m.
"The gong -- that's probably the greatest thing to do," said Derek Rhodes, a Durham Academy junior who had helped at a recent workday. "But aside from that, I would probably saying being a runner. It's the most chaotic job. People are always calling you because they need something."
Spanish teacher Liliana Simón said she was eager to make the Martin Luther King Jr. day of service a regular event.
"I think we're going to do this every year," Simón said. "That would be fantastic."
