CAMBRIDGE — Members of the community are invited to join the people of Zion United Methodist Church, 612 Locust St., Cambridge, for an exciting and ambitious mission project scheduled for Sept. 17, at 10 a.m. in Garrettson Hall. Friends and members of the congregation will be hands-on participants in the fight against world hunger as they prepare food for international distribution by the Stop Hunger Now organization. They will be packaging 15,000 meals to be used in crisis situations and in feeding programs for schools and orphanages in developing countries around the world. The foods to be packaged by these volunteers are dehydrated, fortified rice-soy meals containing over 20 vitamins and minerals especially formulated for the undernourished. Each vacuum sealed bag contains six servings. At least 60 volunteers from the Zion Church family are expected to participate in the assembly line process of packaging the food, which should be completed in just a few hours. The mission of Stop Hunger Now is to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources. More information about this organization can be found at their website http://www.stophungernow.org. To date, volunteers have packaged over 273 million meals for Stop Hunger Now, which were distributed in over 65 countries. That number includes more than 120,000 meals which were prepared by the people of Zion Church in the past six years. They are excited to be helping to increase this number in 2016. In order to sponsor a packing event, the church had to raise enough money to cover the cost of the foodstuffs, which are provided by the organization. Each meal costs 29 cents. In addition to several fundraising activities, donations were also accepted. Through the overwhelming generosity of the congregation and friends $4,500 was raised, and Zion Church will be packing more than 15,000 meals on Saturday. Anyone interested in learning more about the Stop Hunger Now food packaging event planned for Sept. 17 at Zion or in learning how they can help support this activity should call the church office at 410-228-4910. Anyone coming to help should wear a cap.