PORTLAND, Maine — On a perfectly cool September evening at the University of New England's Portland campus, 150 students, including faculty, volunteered their time indoors.
Donning hair nets, they arranged themselves in rows at long tables at the behest of Trisha Mason, the school's director of service learning.
"I'm constantly humbled by our UNE students," she said, looking at the crowd.
Mason organized the throng in the school's second foray into what they called Meals for Maine. At the beating of a gong, volunteers grabbed small, marked bags and began scooping cups of chili flakes, beans, and rice, and added a flavor packet before sealing them and packing them into boxes.
In 2023, the school packed 50,000 meals on the Portland campus. This time, UNE's Biddeford campus joined in and, altogether, they prepped 100,000 meals for shipment to nonprofits and organizations across Maine.
Standing next to Mason, school president James Herbert reminded us that UNE is Maine's only medical school and claims to be the largest contributor to Maine's healthcare workforce.
Nearly everyone working at the tables has chosen a career path to serve others.
"It's easy, as a student, to sit and to talk, to wax philosophically about problems in the world and how other people ought to address them," Herbert said. "It's different to build a culture in which the students themselves, hands-on, are actually doing something concrete."
Mason added that the gesture was not solely about learning to serve; but also about learning a community's needs.
"Food insecurity in Maine is, actually a public health crisis," she explained. "Ten percent of Mainers are food insecure; one in seven children. Our students, when they go out in the field, need to understand that their clients and the people they're working with may come from households who don't know where their next meal is coming from."
Sara Rea is a pharmacy doctoral student who had already given an earlier speech to the younger students about service. For herself, she said, she wanted good grades while at school, of course. But, more so, she wanted to have more days like this.
"This is, kind of, my relief and my remembrance of why I'm here and why I chose the career I did," she said with a smile.
At a table across the room, Hilde Everson laughed and joked with friends, as they made quick work of their meal kits.
"It's really special to be a part of this community and be able to do all of this right here on campus," the third-year physical therapy student said.
Standing back and taking in the bustling effort, the students made, without words, a case that if you give young people a chance to show up for their neighbors, more often than not, they will.