By Amy McRary / USA Today Network

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Jan. 15, 2018) -- Some 250 people, wearing disposable gloves and coral red hairnets, rose up against hunger Monday at Concord United Methodist Church in Farragut.

From 7-year-olds to senior citizens, volunteers observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day by filling thousands of 13.58-ounce plastic bags for the Raleigh, N.C.-based nonprofit Rise Against Hunger.

Each bag was filled with scoops of soy flour, rice and dehydrated vegetables. Each, with its included pack of vitamins and minerals, will make six meals for hungry people, mostly children, in Third World countries like Haiti and on every continent but Antarctica. 

Making meals for hungry people in countries far away wasn't the only Concord United project on Monday or over the MLK Jr. holiday weekend. This is the fourth year for the Farragut church to host its Mission Blitz during the long weekend. 

Some 600 volunteers were expected in an event Jane Currin, the church's director of missions, says grows each year. The first year, Currin said she'd have been thrilled if 150 people volunteered to serve. Three hundred came. Last year, 550 people helped.  

This year, the weekend service ranged from preparing food for food pantries to working on Habitat for Humanity pre-house construction to delivering meals for senior citizens at the Wesley House ministry.

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