It’s not just food, it’s a box of hope
At Forever Living we are so proud to be supporting the charity Rise Against Hunger. An international hunger relief organisation that distributes food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable.
Did you know that worldwide, 795 million people do not eat enough? Rise Against Hunger involves volunteers from churches, schools and associations, as well as companies like us, in its mission to end world hunger, and it does this by providing food packages to those who are in immediate need. It really hits deep when you hear first-hand what a difference these food parcels can make to a person’s life, a person like Maynor Aragon.
Maynor’s story…
Maynor Aragon knows that a dream can fuel your heart and strengthen your resolve, even when there’s not enough food to fuel your body. That’s a lesson he learned first-hand as a 15-year-old orphan in Nicaragua. He also learned that hunger can have a powerful impact and if he wasn’t vigilant, his dreams would fade and eventually drift away like a whisper caught in the wind. That’s the power of hunger, it puts you in survival mode, heightens anxiety, and pushes all other thoughts to the back of the mind.
Maynor didn’t think of a meal simply as food. He thought of it as hope. Food would give him a few more hours in the day where he didn’t have to worry about where his next meal was coming from and he could think about something else, primarily his dream of becoming a sports journalist.
Maynor was only 11 years old when his mother died. His father wasn’t around so he went to live with his grandparents. By the time he was 15, Maynor learned he’d have to leave his grandparents’ home because they could no longer earn enough money to feed him. Like so many other children in Nicaragua who are lost, abandoned or too poor to eat, Maynor eventually sought help from Orphan Network. It was during this time he began receiving meals from Rise Against Hunger.
“It was not just about the meals and the support,” Maynor remembers, “it was about giving someone like me the opportunity to survive and do something with my life. I want the volunteers who package the meals to know that they don’t just put rice and vegetables in a bag, they package hope. Every meal, every box shipped, is a box of hope, opportunity and love. My people may be born with less, but we are not less.”
Maynor says the food he received from Rise Against Hunger was the launchpad he needed to start pursuing his dreams. Today he’s in his fourth year of studying journalism and he’s been on the air for national radio for two years. And yes, he’s well on his way to becoming a sports caster with experience broadcasting sports matches in Nicaragua!
“I want to be a voice for those whose stories are waiting to be heard,” Maynor says. “I am every child who has gone to bed hungry. I am every child who did without. I am every child who dreamed of life without hunger. I am every child who will rise to their potential.”
As a global company, Forever packed over two million meals for Rise Against Hunger in 2017 and we’re proud to report that Forever is well on its way to achieving its goal of packing five million meals by 2020!
