Jackson Christian students help feed thousands
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NORTH JACKSON — Hundreds of helping hands worked together Saturday morning to feed thousands. Students at Jackson Christian School partnered with Gibson County’s Hunters Sharing The Harvest to package 24,000 meals in just a few hours. It’s an alarming statistic — 50 million Americans go hungry. That’s one in six people. That number is the same in Tennessee. That’s why students at JCS partnered with local organizations to fight hunger. “This is a program where we take bulk food, we break it down into individual portions and then use that to distribute through food banks and food pantries,” teacher and student council sponsor Chris Morris said. Morris said the students raised $2,000 to make this possible. “Today before it’s over, we’ll be putting out 24,000 meals,” Morris said. Of those, 16,000 will go with Hunters Sharing the Harvest to outlets around Gibson County and 8,000 to the RIFA Snack Backpack program. The protein-rich meals being packaged will help feed the 21 percent of Madison County children who live in food-insecure homes. Blake Brown from Hunters Sharing the Harvest said this is the first time they teamed up with a high school. “To put a vitamin-fortified macaroni and cheese meal that’s got a soy protein in it so it’s a really good meal and gives people a chance to give back to folks who need it,” Brown said. Students who participated said it wasn’t a second thought volunteering their time Saturday. “There are people out there every day that don’t have the meals,” JCS senior Adam Dunlap said. “They’re not blessed as much as we are here to have a meal every day on the table, and so we have to take care of them.” The food supplies are from Outreach Inc., an organization that has packed and supplied more than 264 million meals to date. Organizers said they hope to make this an annual event at Jackson Christian and will begin planning in August.
