Some very giving Sisters and Associates congregated at Ohio Dominican University with students, faculty and staff for a huge undertaking on a cold February day recently. But the act of packing 13,000 meals for hungry people in the Philippines, completed in just two hours’ time, warmed both their bodies and spirits.

It was all part of “Rise Against Hunger,” a growing global movement to end hunger by empowering communities, nourishing lives and responding to emergencies. Rise Against Hunger also partners with local leaders to implement sustainable agriculture and income-generating projects that support long-term solutions to food security and empower communities to become self-reliant.

Rise Against Hunger really relies on volunteer engagement projects like this one.

You could tell by the smiles on the volunteers’ faces that they were building community right here, helping people in communities more than 8,000 miles away, and perhaps influencing others to become volunteers when faced with a similar opportunity in the future.