September 13: Hunger-Fighting Marvel Saluted

The Guelph Mercury highlights CME alumnus, Gavin Armstrong, and his role as lead organizer of the recent world hunger event hosted at the University of Guelph. 

As university frosh week traditions go, the University of Guelph appears to have developed something of an international marvel.

For two years running, the school has staged an event to confront a world hunger emergency. It has hosted an effort by university and community stakeholders to try to set a world record in preparing the most emergency relief meal kits in one hour.

So far, the school’s record at such attempts is two for two. On Saturday, about 2,000 people packed the U of G’s Gryphon Field House and put together more than 315,000 of these meals in 60 minutes. That was 115,000 meals more than the goal set by organizers.

The food, which was made possible by the support of Kinross Gold Corp., will be shipped to Mauritania. The West African nation has been hit by severe drought and is one of the poorest countries in the world.

The event to send some relief to suffering people a world away created a feel-good buzz among those who took part Saturday — an even larger crowd than the sizable one in 2011, which also set a record with its efforts. The assembly line food-packing blitz helped schoolchildren in Haiti last year.

The effort Saturday saw U of G students, athletes, employees, educators and administrators of all levels participate. It saw children and seniors pitch in. It saw a lot of strangers become much more familiar with one another and it saw incredible spirit and co-operation.

“It’s amazing what an impact you can have in other people’s lives by working together for just one hour,” said lead organizer Gavin Armstrong, a U of G biomedical science PhD student who addressed the food packers before and after their world record effort.

Armstrong, who also helped bring the Universities Fighting World Hunger Summit to U of G in 2011 and became the first Canadian recipient of the President William Jefferson Clinton Hunger Leadership Award, is seeking to involve other universities in packing one million hunger relief meals by the end of 2013.

We wish him and the U of G every success in spreading this world-shrinking miracle to other campuses.

We hope its growing energy also translates into this dynamic event remaining a part of the cultural calendar of Guelph and its university for Septembers to come.