FAQs

Below are some commonly asked questions. Still have a question? Contact us directly!

What is a meal packaging event?

A meal packaging event is a volunteer project in which meals and/or single-ingredient food items are prepared for distribution to local people who struggle with food insecurity.

While many organizations distribute these packaged goods around the world, Illini Fighting Hunger prefers to focus on supporting agencies in the local community, primarily food pantries and food banks in Champaign-Urbana and throughout the state of Illinois.

Illini Fighting Hunger meal packaging events can include as few as 10 volunteers or as many as 450. In a typical packaging event, teams of 6-12 people form an assembly line in which raw food product is measured into a bag, adjusted to be the proper weight, heat-sealed for clean storage and boxed up for transport to its destination.

I am a student looking to get involved as an individual volunteer. Are there any membership requirements or recruiting periods I should know about?

You are in luck, as being a student member of IFH does not involve any membership dues or point/attendance requirements. You can join IFH at any time in the semester. We just ask that you bring your passion for fighting food insecurity, of course!

However, we do still track activity points for our own understanding of member activity trends. There is an activity leaderboard, and the most active members can get rewarded with gift card prizes!

How does the packaging process work?

Illini Fighting Hunger facilitators always provide a full tutorial at the beginning of every packaging event. However, if you want to get ahead of the game or are just curious about how the process works, we’ve outlined the process for our casserole packaging projects here. We also facilitate single-ingredient packaging projects, which are effectively the same (just with one ingredient, like rice, instead of four!)

The following process takes place in every packaging line at a packaging event, although it varies slightly for projects that package other products, such as plain rice:

Volunteer 1, who is responsible for plastic bags, should hold a bag under the funnel and clasp the corners of the bag. 

Volunteer 2 gets the next bag ready so there is no delay before filling the next bag.

Volunteer 3 places 1 level scoop of Vitamin Powder into the bag first. (The order of ingredients is important! )

Volunteer 4 then places 1 level scoop of vegetables into the bag.

Volunteer 5 then places 1 level cup of Soy Protein into the bag.

Finally, Volunteer 6 places 1 level cup of Rice into the bag.

What will our event cost, how many volunteers can participate, and how much will we package?

Good question!

Designing a meal packaging event can be tricky. Volunteer teams of 10-12 people can package 1,500-2,000 meals in one hour. Illini Fighting Hunger can help you organize an event with as little as 1 or as many as 45 teams working simultaneously.

A simple formula of volunteers × hours × 2000 ÷ 12 can help you estimate how many meals your event can produce, although the actual rate depends on the skill, focus, and determination of your volunteers. The cost per meal depends on market prices, total volume of food product being purchased for your event, and the location to which you’ll send the finished product. Single-ingredient (rice) packaging events tend to cost less than meal packaging events.

Contact us to speak with an Illini Fighting Hunger representative for more information.

What’s in an Illini Fighting Hunger Meal?

View the Our Meal page for a breakdown!

Where do our packed meals/rice bags go?

Illini Fighting Hunger deliberately focuses on providing food to agencies addressing food insecurity in the state of Illinois. Primary recipients of the food packaged by our projects are food pantries and food banks in Illinois.

Below is a growing list of places where Illini Fighting Hunger projects have donated food to fight hunger: