MAITLAND, Fla. – Students and staff at an Orange County private school held an event on Wednesday to assemble 25,000 meals for children in need.
The event was held at Park Maitland School, where $8,900 was raised to buy the meal packing supplies, organizers said.
"It's a leadership experience for the kids, as well as outreach for everybody, and it's just a really good experience for the whole school," said John Courson, director of student outreach.
According to administrators, students held several fundraisers throughout the school year to purchase the healthy meal kits from Feeding Children Everywhere (FCE). It's the seventh straight year the school has partnered with the nonprofit organization.
"They already knew what to do before I got here to train them this morning," spokesman Raven Troyer said. "They definitely know the impact they're making today."
Troyer said all of the meals assembled by the school will be distributed to families in Central Florida, where one in nine people are faced with hunger every day.
"It makes me feel very happy," a fifth-grader named Finn said. "I think it really helps the people who are really hungry."
Troyer said FCE was founded in 2010 and since then the organization has helped package tens of millions of meals for hungry people in the United States and around the world.
Administrators at Park Maitland said Wednesday's event is one of several ways students give back and the school plans to continue working with FCE next school year.
"Each year it gets better and the kids talk about it when they go home," Courson said. "It's an amazing experience for our whole school community."