Lopez School students are doing their part to help fight world hunger. Students in grades K-12 raised money to buy rice, spices, lentils, and chicken bouillion, which they packaged up and donated to Children of the Nations, a non-profit organization that assists destitute children and orphans by providing clothing, food, orphanages and other support in Malawi, the Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone, the U.S., and Uganda. The Lopez children sent a shipment of over 14,000 meals that they packaged especially for Malawi as their contribution.

Lopez has had a connection with Children of the Nations for years. Three Lopez School students (now graduated) traveled to Malawi through the organization, several years ago Lopez School sent over 25 cases of new textbooks to the country, and the Enchanted Quilters of Lopez have been making quilts for Children of the Nations for five years. They just sent a shipment of 40 quilts. 

Kim Foley, one of the organizers, said, “The children raised the money to purchase the staples that went into the meals. One meal costs a quarter, and each packet is made up of lentils, spice, chicken bouillion, and rice. The different grades did an assembly line around the table with a funnel in the middle, and sang a little song as they worked: chicken rice, lentils and spice! The middle school packaged about 4500 meals and then the high school came in and put together the same amount. The elementary school’s turn came and they packaged the most out of all three grades, packaging almost 5,000 meals. Everyone wore caps, aprons and gloves per the food service regulations. Then we weighed each package, vacuum sealed it, boxed it, and the children even decorated the containers with greetings from Lopez. The entire contribution from the students that day was 14,088 meals that we are