Monday, 16,224 meals were prepared in the Armstrong Elementary School cafeteria.

The meals weren't served there. Instead, one-third were delivered to the in Worcester; one-third were delivered to the Friendly House in Worcester; and one-third were delivered to the Worcester Food Bank, parent Claudia Ramirez, said.

Monday's packaging event marked the end of the Armstrong school's Change X Hunger fundraiser, which started in the fall.

The program raised $4,005 in donations – exceeding its $2,500 goal. Armstrong is partnering with Outreach Inc. – Kids Care on the project.

Volunteers worked for three hours Monday, starting at 9:30 a.m.

By 10:25 a.m., dozens of Westborough students and parents had packed 2,500 meals, said Heidi Martin, whose husband Matthew is Outreach's New England regional manager.

"Part of the reason that you're here is there are over a billion people on our planet that are either starving to death or malnourished," she told the crowd.

"That's one out of every seven people in the world (and) one out of every six in America. It's a problem that we're going to try to help out."