Project creates more than 12,000 harvester packs for families in South Sudan

Volunteers, including hundreds of Mason students, helped package seeds Thursday to send to families in South Sudan. (Jake McLernon)

Last Thursday, Oct. 20, “Love South Sudan” brought together hundreds of volunteers in the Mason community to assist in creating seed packets to send to South Sudanese families.

The humanitarian aid project took place in the HUB (SUB II) ballroom from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.  The event was sponsored by Mason Cru, a Christian student organization, and the Global Aid Initiative (GAIN), which works with Cru on campuses for global aid initiatives.

Brett Miller, Director of Mason Cru, said an estimated 600 students stopped by throughout the day to help pack seeds, some staying for several hours.

“What was so encouraging about the event was to see students from every corner of campus, different organizations, different ethnicities, different years, different personalities, etc... unite together for a common cause,” said Miller in a message to C2M. “We hope to create a culture like this on campus and do bigger events in the future.”

Miller mentioned that during a four hour period in the afternoon, from 2 p.m. until about 6 p.m., a steady stream of 150 people filled the ballroom.

By days end, Miller said a total of more than 12,000 harvester packs were assembled, each containing five packets of vegetable seeds.

The total was short of their goal but Miller said observing the process was helpful in determining ways to improve the project in the future.

“Global Aid Network, the humanitarian arm of Cru, is refining their seed packing process in order to do more events on college campuses,” said Miller.

Around 400 t-shirts were also sold for the event which helped offset the cost of the seeds and packaging materials. The t-shirts were sold for $20, roughly the cost of 40 harvester packs.

According to Miller, Cru will continue to sell the t-shirts, likely for the remainder of the semester.

Miller said the remainder of the seeds that were not packaged at the event Thursday would be packed at the GAIN warehouse by staff and volunteers before being shipped to South Sudan.