Volunteers packaged 301,752 meals at the fifth annual Service N.C. State Saturday, which the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service sponsored in partnership with Stop Hunger Now.

During the first shift, volunteers packaged 101,952 meals; 133,272 during the second shift; and 66,528 during the third until the meals ran out.

“It was an absolutely fantastic event,” Mike Giancola, CSLEPS director, said.

According to Giancola, many different people participated.

“It wasn’t just an N.C. State event,” he said. “It was truly a community event.”

15,500 students, faculty, staff, community members and corporate sponsors volunteered at the event in Carmichael Gymnasium.

So many volunteers signed up that CSLEPS had to turn some people away, Giancola said.

Various speakers spoke to the volunteers before each shift, including Congressman Brad Miller before the third shift.

Organizers raised $5,035, including pledges, according to Giancola.

Stop Hunger Now will send the meals, dehydrated, fortified rice-soy, to an organization called Haiti Vision and to Senegal.