A team of 30 Trent students took on a friendly challenge with their counterparts at Fleming College on November 18 to see who could box the most food to feed starving children in Haiti through Kids Against Hunger.

The teams of students worked at several packaging stations in the Great Hall of Champlain College. Soy mix, dried vegetables, chicken stock and rice were measured and placed in packages that each weigh about 395 grams and contain ample food for six well-balanced, nutritious meals. Each case of food contained 36 meal packages.

At the end of the day, 15,336 meals were packaged by both teams, with Trent coming out on top by several cases.

"It was a great pleasure to work with so many terrific Trent students in making this event a huge success,” said Reverend Glenn Empey, spiritual affairs coordinator at Trent who helped organize the event. “The turn-out of volunteers was excellent both from Trent and Fleming. Each person worked really hard... many for almost four hours straight. It was absolutely great! Trent packaged a few more cases of meals than did their competitors but the real winners in this are the kids in Haiti! Many, many thanks to all our volunteers."

This event for Kids Against Hunger Canada, which has its head office in Peterborough, was sponsored and coordinated by Trent Spiritual Affairs in partnership with Christian Farmers’ Fellowship. The food was donated by a local citizen with a matching grant from his employer. Kids Against Hunger delivered the food materials and set up the necessary equipment for the packaging assembly lines. The meals will be delivered to starving children in Haiti. This was the first such event at Trent University but plans are to make it an annual event in future years.