The Westfield Kiwanis Club stepped up in a big way Saturday to address the problem of food insecurity in Western Massachusetts.
Club members were joined by members of the Kiwanis Clubs of Springfield, Southern Berkshire, Northampton and Easthampton in a meal packaging event held at Westfield State University.
The Westfield club donated $5,000 to the Outreach Program to provide the food and other materials to package nearly 15,000 meals. The Springfield club donated an additional $500, and the total of $5,500 was matched by a grant from the Kiwanis Foundation of New England, bringing the total to $11,000.
The food packaging line was manned by volunteers from the Kiwanis clubs, the Kiwanis Circle K clubs at Westfield State University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the West Springfield High School Key Club, and the HEC Academy Key Club from Northampton.
Also participating were members of the Kiwanis-sponsored Connecticut River Aktion Club, a club for adults with developmental disabilities, and from the nursing program at Westfield State University.
The volunteers packaged approximately 15,000 meals in a two-hour period. The easy-to-prepare high-nutrition meals will be distributed this week to food pantries and relief programs across Western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut.