Volunteers from very young to very old and everything in between banded together Saturday to help feed hungry orphans in Haiti.

About 200 volunteers turned out to package 80,200 meals for Kids Against Hunger in the Albert Lea High School gymnasium.

The event was spearheaded by Albert Lea High School senior Meagan Hickman, who learned about the program while on a mission trip last summer. The ALHS student council and other high school students got involved, as well as members of the community by first raising money and then by coming together to package the rice, soy powder, chicken flavoring, vegetables and vitamins and minerals. The combination was developed by the country’s top food scientists to reverse the starvation process. Each package of food contains six servings.

Hickman’s original goal was to raise $50,000 for Kids Against Hunger. The total number of dollars raised was unknown on Sunday. Hickman said money is still coming in and it may be a couple weeks before she has a total.

Tim Stromer of Mankato, division director of Kids Against Hunger, said the organization has a meal-packaging event every weekend, but this was the first time he’d seen high school students organize one.

“Every person working today for two hours will have packaged enough food to feed a starving person for one year,” Stromer said Saturday. “The term ‘hero’ gets thrown out a lot, but the definition is one who saves a life. These kids are saving lives. If you package food for a starving kid, you’re a hero.”

Volunteers did everything from unload large bags of the ingredients to be packaged off a semi truck to setting up the 10 packaging stations, refilling tubs of ingredients, helping with the actual packaging, weighing the food, sealing the pouches, packing boxes and putting the filled boxes back on the semi.

For the first shift, volunteers rotated in so everyone could have an opportunity to help.

High school student Mikaela Bordewick, a station leader, said she got involved because she thought it sounded like a fun project. “It seemed like a good cause and a good way to spend a Saturday,” she said.

Jonathon Green, who is retired, said he decided to help out because it was a worthwhile cause with a meaningful goal. “It’s a small step, but an important step,” Green said. “We need to help out how we can with the world’s hunger.”

Stations found ways to make the job fun. Some would chant when they needed an ingredient: “Rice, rice would be nice” and “Soy, soy we want more,” could be heard when containers needed filling.

Kids Against Hunger founder, Richard Proudfit of New Hope, also showed up to show his support for the local effort. He started the program 25 years ago, and efforts have been doubling each year. He estimates the program will package 80 million meals next year.

The need is so great. “Forty thousand children die of hunger each day,” he said.

Proudfit said there are now 54 Kids Against Hunger satellites across the country that package food every day. His goal is to have 500 satellites across the country with 10 to 15 in each state.

He said he’s also talking to people in England, Germany, France, New Zealand and Australia about setting up satellites. “We’re reaching out to the world to help feed the world,” he said.

Hickman said she was very pleased with Saturday’s effort. “It went very well,” she said. “It was great to see young kids, older people and everyone else working together and having fun,” she said.

David Hickman, Meagan’s father, said he was grateful there were so many adults — from the high school principal, business people, churches and service clubs — who encouraged his daughter and her fellow students in the effort.

“Their words made have made a difference,” he said.