The power of volunteering is to enrich our lives and the world around us. People choose to volunteer for a variety of reasons. For some, it offers the chance to give something back to the community or make a difference to the people around them. For others, it provides an opportunity to develop new skills or build on existing experience and knowledge.

Regardless of the motivation, what unites them all is that they find it both challenging and rewarding.

Several Bell and Howell employees recently joined other Research Triangle (North Carolina) professionals for a food drive sponsored by Brand Fuel, for school kids who don’t always know where their next meal is going to come from.

“BackPack Buddies” provides children from food-insecure homes with healthy weekend meals during the school year. The children, selected by school principals, guidance counselors, and supervisors of various school programs, receive a backpack containing six balanced meals and two healthy snacks at the end of every week.

Marketing Associate Josh Rees (right), helps pack grocery bags as part of the BackPack Buddies Challenge. The event benefited the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, an innovate hunger-relief organization serving seven counties in and around the Triangle.

Fast Facts

— More than 118,000 children in the Triangle area applied for free or reduced-price meals during the 2014-15 school year

— One in four children are at risk of hunger in North Carolina

— During the 2015-16 school year, more than 2,000 children were served at 67 sites across seven counties