With the world’s eyes on the country of Brazil, Stop Hunger Now has taken its meal packaging program on the road to Rio de Janeiro: We recently teamed up with 160 Hewlett Packard Enterprise staff members, family and friends to package 100,000 meals in Rio. We also facilitated meal packaging events with HP Enterprise in the cities of Araraquara and Nerópolis.
The meals, which consist of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a packet containing 23 essential vitamins and minerals, were packaged using materials sourced through vendors in Rio, with the goal of stimulating the local economy.
The HP Enterprise event was made even more impactful by the presence of local Stop Hunger Now meal distribution partners ADRA, a humanitarian relief agency, and Salesian Missions, an international youth outreach organization. ADRA will utilize meals packaged at the event to support 5,000 students throughout Rio, and Salesian Missions will distribute the meals to 50 families, as well as to homeless individuals in downtown Rio.
Despite huge advancements in reducing malnutrition and child mortality rates over the last decade, 17.7 million of the 58.6 million households in Brazil (30.2%) still face some degree of food insecurity, with more of those at-risk households in rural than in urban areas, and women-headed households (14.2%) more at risk than those headed by men (10.2%) [Source: 2009 National Household Sample Survey].
And we’re not stopping there. The Stop Hunger Now team will travel to Brazil once again in September, where they’ll engage hundreds more HP Enterprise volunteers to package 200,000 meals in the cities of Porto Alegre and Imigrantes.
With the support of volunteers and advocates like you, we’ll continue to make an impact in Brazil and around the globe. Click here to donate.