Spring Breakers To Pack 1 Million Meals for Haiti

Haitian earthquake victims benefit from Big Break outreach during 2010's Spring Break in Panama City Beach, Fla.

Photo by Guy Gerrard

During the next month, thousands of college students are converging on Panama City Beach -- not just for fun in the sun but as part of an effort to help Haiti earthquake victims.

Through Campus Crusade for Christ's annual Big Break outreach conferences, spring breakers will have a hands-on opportunity to help prepare and pack meals for 1 million Haitian earthquake victims.

Read on-the-ground reports from Big Break 2010.

More than 2,500 students from across America are expected to attend one of five week-long events between February 28 and April 3. Each outreach event helps students to grow spiritually while having fun and sharing their faith on the beach with the thousands of other students enjoying a more stereotypical spring break.

Campus Crusade for Christ is partnering with Kids Against Hunger and the Global Aid Network (GAiN) to pack and ship the million meals to Haiti.

Global Aid Network, the relief and development arm of Campus Crusade for Christ International, responded immediately to the earthquake by distributing more than 1 million pre-positioned meals. In addition to Spring Break efforts, Global Aid Network plans to mobilize 11 additional medical teams in Haiti during the next 90 days through its partners.

"I'm hearing from students around the country who are excited about this opportunity to help ease the suffering in Haiti in a tangible way," says Mark Gauthier, national director of the U.S. Campus Ministry. "I'm thankful for both the students and for the thousands of partners whose generous gifts will help pay for the meals and the shipping costs."

Students attending Campus Crusade's Big Break will invite other unaffiliated students on the beach to join them each afternoon for a packing party where 100,000 meals will be packed. The students will combine 4 ingredients to create a highly nutritious, vitamin-fortified soy-rice mix. When cooked with 6 cups of water, each meal-mix swells 14 times in size to form a casserole or porridge. The million meals the students pack will fill 6 tractor trailers.

Today's college students want to make a difference in the world. After Hurricane Katrina, 17,000 students traveled to Mississippi and Louisiana to join Campus Crusade relief projects.