Wiggins Lends a Hand to Fight World Hunger
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Nearly 500 volunteers from throughout the Minneapolis area spent Friday afternoon packing meals to help fight world-wide hunger at the Target Center, partnering up with ImpactLives to send meals to those in need. Lynx guard Candice Wiggins joined the volunteers and Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx staff members before Friday's game against the Monarchs to pack meals to be sent to starving children in the United States and around the world.
Table upon table of food-packing stations were full with volunteers eagerly filling bags with rice, soy and dried vegetables to be sent to those in need.
"I just think it's something we don't understand and we can't conceptualize what world hunger really means," Wiggins said. "You hear that word, but you don't really understand what it means. When you're able to get involved and not just donate your money, but donate your time and effort into something, it's really really impactful."
ImpactLives President Ramon Pastrano said he expects to pack 300,000 meals at Friday's event that will be sent to Nigeria to an HIV hospital, an orphanage and pregnancy clinic. ImpactLives will return to the Target Center for another packing event before the Lynx home game against the Storm on Saturday, September 5.
Pastrano said he hopes to pack five million meals this year to be sent to those in need and help fight the 1.3 billion people facing starvation and hunger all over the world. The exposure, helpfulness and commitment from the Lynx has helped his organization reach that goal.
"It has been amazing," Pastrano said. "Just meeting the coaching staff, the Lynx staff, they have been so supportive of what we're doing. Just working with an organization that is so embedded so organically into our community, people that really want to make a difference, it's amazing. It's exactly what we are about. The partnership is a perfect fit for us as well as for the Lynx. We hope we can take this to the next level which will be the WNBA and maybe perhaps do this in every city and partner with different places around the world where the food is needed."
Wiggins said she was impressed not only with the amazing turnout and energy from the volunteers but also with the way ImpactLives is working to attack the issue of world hunger. She said she was impressed with how they work as a team to tackle the issue from all sides, even working to educate those receiving the food how to use the tools around them. Wiggins talked with Pastrano and he showed her all the different programs ImpactLives does to help fight and prevent hunger.
Even on a game day and in the middle of a playoff battle, it was a welcome distraction and a humbling reminder.
"It is a game day, but I don't care about that right now," Wiggins said. "I realize I haven't been educated on a lot of these issues. Even as aware as I thought I was, I really learned a lot. Really about what they're doing and not just for the people fighting starvation but also the impact hunger has. It can make people desperate and to do things they wouldn't if they had the nourishment that they needed. To me, I am humbled by all of this by learning so much about it and being able to be apart of it and seeing how this is actually changing the world."
For more news and notes on the team follow the Minnesota Lynx on Twitter. To learn more about ImpactLives and the 'Hoops for Hunger' initiative, please go to www.hoopsforhunger.org.
