Wayne State students volunteered their time to help package meals for needy children on Nov. 7 and 8.

The event was hosted by the Lutheran Student Fellowship (LSF) on campus. Mercy Meals of Nebraska brought supplies to Cup of Grace, south of campus, where volunteers packaged nourishing meals to be delivered to children in need throughout the world.

“Our goal was to reach over 42,000 meals and we were over halfway yesterday (Nov. 7), so it was a good turnout and it’s going great today,” said Rhonda Wrenholt, director of Mercy Meals in Norfolk.

The food packages contained different types of dried vegetables, chicken flavoring with added vitamins and minerals, soy flakes and rice. After packaging, the meals are transported through Mercy Meals’ sister organization, to be delivered to the children in need.

“We work with Orphan Grain Train,” said Wrenholt. “They do all of the transportation for us and they pay all of the transportation fees for Mercy Meals in Norfolk. I never usually know where this food goes until after its been shipped, but I know that lately they’ve been sending them to Philippines, Haiti, Central Zambia and the Republic of Georgia.”

Students and members of the community were able to help at the event either individually or in organized groups. Many organizations on campus used the event as a time to give back.

“A lot of us girls are in rugby and we decided to get out in the community as a team,” said Lindey Pingel, freshman women’s rugby player.

The event proved to be successful as the number of meals packaged exceeded the goal.

“We packed 48,000 meals, 6,000 over our goal,” said Rebecca Bonsall, president of LSF. “Over 250 people helped. We did have some people from the community come out but mostly students came.”

“It was a really great event,” said Bonsall. “It was great to see how many students wanted to volunteer their time to help.”