Calvary Church’s four central Pennsylvania locations will bring together hundreds of community members this weekend to “PackHope,” an event to pack meals for refugees in the Middle East.
The churches in Boalsburg, Tyrone, Penns Valley and Lewistown will be participating in the event on Saturday and Sunday.
At the Boalsburg location, the goal is to pack 240,000 rice and bean meals. The other Calvary sites will each be packing 10,000 seed packets for refugee vegetable gardens. Calvary’s partner organization UNTO works to ship and deliver the packets to those living in refugee camps and also send teams to plant gardens and install drip irrigation systems.
Courtney Logue, the online producer for Calvary, said that the church was inspired to host this event because it makes a difference in the lives of refugees.
“All around the globe, hunger and malnutrition claim lives while crippling the advancement of individual communities,” she said. “The United Nations reports that childhood hunger is responsible for the deaths of 6.5 million children under the age of five each year. One in nine people go to bed hungry around the world. With over 68 million refugees and displaced people in the world today, half of those are children under 18 plagued by malnutrition.”
Meal packing in Boalsburg will take place during two two-hour sessions each day, while each of the other locations will have a two-hour seed-packing session
“By the end of the weekend, our goal is to relieve suffering, reveal hope and restore dignity to those living in the toughest places,” Logue said. “We believe in a church without walls. This means that we are intentional about spreading out in our neighborhoods or communities to share the love of Jesus. This also includes globally. We support many organizations around the world and through us, we can make a difference in someone’s life.”
The packing event currently has 750 volunteers registered, and is in need of about 1,100 total volunteers..
Anyone interested in volunteering can register at Calvary’s website.
Calvary is also accepting any monetary donations for the event. All money donated goes to the meal and seed packing efforts. A single dollar provides three meals for a refugee and a gift of $50 provides a refugee family with five meals for an entire month. A donation link is also available at Calvary’s website.
