Jada Brice, 9, daughter of OSF HealthCare employee Jalisa Hawkins, organizes packaged meals on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, for Kids Around the World at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)
    By Kevin Haas
    Rock River Current
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    ROCKFORD — OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center employees set out to pack 30,000 meals on Tuesday to help fight childhood malnutrition and hunger around the world.

    The hospital’s employees and some family members packaged food for Kids Around the World, a Rockford faith-based nonprofit that works to build playgrounds and provide meals and other support to children in need.

    “OSF has always been all about giving the greatest care and love, and we were kind of contained to these four walls,” said Adam Schafer, clinical nutrition manager for the hospital and coordinator of the volunteer effort. “So we wanted to do something more for the community, and for the world in this case.”

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    Sister Simona, pastoral care visitor at OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center, helps package meals on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. The meals went to children in need across the globe as part of a Kids Around the World mission. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

    The meal packing done Tuesday is part of Kids Around the World’s OneMeal program, which ships thousands of meals overseas to children in orphanages, schools, churches, homes and for community food centers.

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    According to Kids Around the World, one in seven children across the globe suffers from the effects of food insecurity and lives in a chronic state of malnutrition.

    From left: Ezenwa Osuagwu, an oncology clinical researcher, Victoria Kulavic, manager of quality and safety, and Lisa Bruno, an oncology nurse navigator, package meals Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, for Kids Around the World at OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

    Schafer said he learned about the nonprofit after participating in a similar effort through Stateline Church, 601 N. Perryville Road.

    About 70 people volunteered Tuesday to help pack meals at the hospital, 5666 E. State St.

    “It just shows how much everyone cares, just to give back,” Schafer said. “It just shows who we are as mission partners here at OSF Saint Anthony.”

    Jalisa Hawkins, who works in human resources at OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center, and her daughter Janiya Brice, 13, package meals on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022, for Kids Around the World. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)

    This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.

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