University of Illinois Springfield students, faculty and staff assembled food packets Sept. 11 for Midwest Mission Distribution Center to commemorate the National Day of Service and Remembrance.
Across the country, groups took part in service projects and marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
On the UIS campus, volunteers measured and poured ingredients into a medium-sized bag, sealing the packets and placing them into a box.
The university partnered with Midwest Mission Distribution Center, which helped supply all the contents for the food packages and will send the boxes to Honduras and Guatemala. The packet filled with rice, soy meal and dried vegetables will go to families facing food insecurity.
“It’s a good cause,” said UIS freshman Jamiya Jordan, whose said her participation in the event didn’t interfere with her classes. “So, I just wanted to do it.”
The university received a grant from 9/11 Day, a nonprofit that helped lead the federal recognition of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks as a day of service.
“The whole goal of this day is remembrance, but also turning grief into good,” said Jill Hawkins Wrights, the director of the Volunteer and Civic Engagement Center at UIS.
“We just hope that people not only serve today, but continue this legacy by caring for one another and living like it’s 9-12,” Hawkins Wrights said.
Hawkins Wright said the packets the UIS volunteers completed will feed nearly 20,000 people.
Aaron Mata, a UIS freshman, said he was “negative 7 years old” on the day of the attacks.
“I know that (Sept. 11, 2001) was a moment that really brought America back together, and that’s something I’d really like to see happen every day,” Mata said.
