Nearly 100 volunteers, led by students from the Physician Assistant (PA) Program at Penn State College of Medicine and other members of the campus community, packaged more than 18,000 meals to be distributed to people in need throughout the world.
Through donations, bake sales and various other fundraisers, the PA students raised $5,261 that was used to purchase the meals from Stop Hunger Now. Founded in 1998, Stop Hunger Now’s mission is to end hunger by providing food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable. The organization has provided over 225 million meals to people in 73 countries.
“Nutrition is so important to people’s health, we really want to help, children especially, and make sure they have food on the table every day,” said Erin Bernhard, president of the PA Program class of 2017. “Our whole class is very committed to community service. When they look at applicants for this program, one thing they look at is your community service prior to starting PA school, and our class already has more than 23,000 hours of service coming into this program. So for us to be able to continue that effort as students when life is hectic and crazy, it’s really great.”
A portion of the event was broadcast live on the College of Medicine’s Facebook page which can be viewed here.