By Benjamin Yeager ’09, ’10
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., — BonaResponds, a St. Bonaventure University community volunteer organization, is inviting the public to help prepare boxes of food for children affected by the earthquake in Haiti. The food will be packaged during a daylong work session Saturday, Sept. 11, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Reilly Center on campus.
The organization, under the direction of Dr. Jim Mahar, associate professor of finance, will be working with a group called Feed My Starving Children to pack enough boxes of food to feed 100,000 children. They will also be looking for new volunteers to continue fundraising efforts for Haiti.
“We really want and need community groups to get involved, including churches, Scout groups, school classes, etc.,” says Mahar. Volunteers will work in shifts of two hours, and may work one or multiple shifts.
According to Feed My Starving Children, the meals to be packed are called MannaPack-Rice. They consist of rice, dehydrated vegetables and chicken flavored vitamins, can be cooked with boiling water, and cost only 19 cents to produce. Founded in 1987, Feed My Starving Children is a Christian nonprofit hunger organization that distributes these packed meals through missionaries and global nonprofits across the world.
For more information or to register to volunteer, visit www.bonaresponds.org or contact Mahar at jmahar@sbu.edu.
______________
About the University: St. Bonaventure is ranked 29th in U.S.News & World Report’s 2011 ranking of Northern universities that offer master’s degrees. It has a history of accomplishment and service that extends back more than 150 years. At the heart of St. Bonaventure is the Franciscan affirmation of the dignity and worth of the entire created order. Fundamental to this vision is an awareness that it is within relationships and community that individuals discover and develop their potential.