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Bastrop County Rotary Club hosted a regionwide event  on June 5 in its efforts to help fight world hunger. 

Rotarians from 18 clubs across Central Texas will gather in Bastrop to package and box meals for worldwide distribution.

The event is being held in conjunction with Rise Against Hunger, an international nonprofit hunger relief organization that helps coordinate the packaging and distribution of food to people in need worldwide.

Rise Against Hunger was founded in 1998 and has helped distribute hundreds of millions of meals and other critical aid to people in 78 countries.

Rise Against Hunger is a “growing a global movement to end hunger by empowering communities, nourishing lives and responding to emergencies,” according to its website. Nearly 85,000 volunteers helped contribute to hunger-relief efforts last year despite the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2019, the organization helped package more than 77 million meals through the efforts of more than 415,000 volunteers.

Larry Jackson, a lieutenant governor in Rotary District 5870 in Central Texas, which is sponsoring the event, said the regional June 5 event’s goal is to pack 10,000 meals in one morning for overseas distribution.

“It’s a hands-on way we can make a difference,” Jackson said. “Rotary members believe that we have a shared responsibility to take action on our world’s most persistent issues. Hunger is certainly one of those issues, and this is a way each of us can do something about it.”

Volunteers from the rotary clubs — which represent Bastrop and six neighboring counties — will mix soy, rice, dried vegetables and spices into packets, then heat seal, label and box the packages for international shipment by Rise Against Hunger.