WACO, Texas — Baylor University brought together more than 700 volunteers on Tuesday for their 58:10 project.
The annual event is meant to give back and help local organizations fighting food insecurity in McLennan County.
Volunteers dropped off a ton of pre-packaged meals to Caritas of Waco early Wednesday morning.
"We can hand this out to the community," said Charles Harris, assistant executive director of Caritas of Waco. "It's a good, stable meal to provide for their families."
The group spent three and a half hours Tuesday night packaging 101,592 meals to donate.
Jasmine Eckert is a junior at Baylor University and just one of the over 700 volunteers who wanted to give back.
"I love to help people," she said. "It's like the one thing in life that makes me happy. In any way I can, small or big, I love to impact the community."
With the Central Texas Food Bank reporting roughly 20 percent of McLennan County facing food insecurity, Eckert said this was one of the biggest projects she worked on and she knew she had to get involved.
"This is my first year to volunteer, but I heard about this many months prior," Eckert said. "Once I heard about it, I wanted to get involved because I have a passion for helping people and so this is a great opportunity to pursue that passion."
This was the second year Baylor hosted the 58:10 project. The name comes from the bible verse Isaiah 58:10, which encourages people to help the hungry.
It reads "If you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday."
Last year volunteers made about 50,000 meals. Organizer and faculty leader Jason Macgregor said they were able to double that number with the help of donations from the community.
"It wasn't just one group. It wasn't just corporations, it wasn't just churches," he said. "It was all these organizations that say I can't do the $40,000 that is needed for this event, but I can do my part. That's the only way we can address food insecurity if we all do our part."
The school is still accepting donations. For more information on the project and how you can help, you can visit their website here.
