FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas athletes and coaches will challenge thousands of volunteers to pack 2 million dry meals in 24 hours for people in Haiti, attempting to break the record of food packed for the earthquake-stricken nation in a one-day span.
Athletic Director Jeff Longon Friday issued a call for volunteers to meet at the Randal Tyson Track Center on the Fayetteville campus June 25-26 to work two-hour shifts, filling and sealing packets that will reach hungry Haitians five to seven days after the event.
“We’re used to this kind of challenge,” Long said. “We’re going to beat L.A. [Los Angeles], we’re going to beatthose other cities with more resources and more population because that’s what we do.”
At the event, called Razorback Relief Operation Haiti, 12-person teams at 50 stations will attempt to break the 1.2 million package record set in Kansas City earlier this year.
The teams will quickly pack and seal soy pow-der, rice, dried vegetables and vitamin supplements into plastic bags. The dried meals, which cost 33 cents to produce and transport, will be loaded onto semis, bound for Miami as soon as they are filled, said former Razorbacks golfer Rich Morris, who is coordinating the event. The trucks will then be loaded on barges and shipped to camps in Haiti.
“Not everybody can give money,” Morris said. “But everybody’s willing to give an hour, two hours, six hours, 24 hours of their time.”
The meal packaging is the brainchild of El Dorado, Kan .-based Numana, a hunger relief organization. More than 6,000 people showed up to the group’s inaugural packing event in Kansas three years ago, exceeded its goal of packing 285,000 meals.
Since the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, hunger relief organizations have worked together to provide supplies for the packing events, meeting the immediate needs of people there, Morris said.
The Razorback Relief event will ship in 10 semitruck loads of supplies, which should fill 15 barges with meals. At full capacity, volunteers, old and young, should be able to produce 95,000 meals an hour, he said.
“If you can walk, you cancome out and help us,” Morris said, welcoming even children as young as 4 years old to the event.
The packages, with labels in both English and Creole, reveal the strife caused by a need for basic supplies in Haiti.
Instructions on the back of the meals warn their recipients: “Be alert! Watch for scams! No one can force you to work or have sex.”
Sophomore track athlete Terry Prentice, a member of the student athlete advisory committee, said the group has been focused on finding a way to address needs in Haiti since first hearing of the earthquake.
The group provided 2,200 hours of community servicein the Northwest Arkansas area last year.
“This has become the perfect opportunity to help worldwide and not just keep it in house in the Razorback Nation,” he said.
The event will kick off at 7 p.m. June 25 and run for 24 hours.
Volunteers are asked to bring a food item for the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. Most volunteers will be asked to work a minimum of a two-hour shift.
Groups and individuals do not need to sign up in advance. Large groups can email Morris at richmorris@a cumenholdings.com for more information.
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Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/12/2010