More than 1,000 volunteers are expected to descend on the NC State Wellness and Recreation Center Friday morning, turning a somber anniversary into an assembly line of hunger relief. From 9 to 11 a.m., the group will pack more than 226,100 nutritious meals as part of Raleigh's contribution to what organizers are calling the largest day of service in U.S. history, marking 25 years since the September 11 attacks.
The event, dubbed “Honor Through Action,” is part of a coordinated national effort led by the nonprofit 9/11 Day, according to CBS 17. The organization aims to mobilize 50,000 volunteers nationwide to pack around 20 million meals, per the same report. Corporations, educational institutions and professional sports leagues are all participating in the broader push, folding Raleigh's morning shift into a much larger national tapestry of volunteer labor.
A National Campaign With Local Stakes
9/11 Day's 2026 push, branded “Unite for Good” for the 25th anniversary, is aiming even higher on the national stage than the figures cited in Raleigh: the campaign's own materials describe a goal of mobilizing 50,000 volunteers across more than 50 U.S. cities to pack 18 million shelf-stable meals, according to a release distributed via PR Newswire. Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Maryland Governor Wes Moore were named honorary co-chairs of the 25th anniversary observance, issuing joint calls encouraging Americans to set aside political differences through community volunteering. Principal funding for the national program came from AmeriCorps, Delta Air Lines and Reliance, Inc., alongside corporate sponsors including Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a firm that lost 67 employees in the World Trade Center attacks.
The organization itself traces back to co-founders David Paine and Jay Winuk, who launched it in 2002 after Winuk's brother Glenn, a volunteer firefighter and attorney, died while rescuing people at the World Trade Center's South Tower, according to Global Heroes. The co-founders launched the initiative six months after the attacks specifically to ensure 9/11 was defined by unity and service rather than grief. Meal packing became the organization's signature activity after its first large-scale project in New York City in 2016, when 1,600 volunteers prepared 503,000 meals, establishing a template that has since expanded into a multi-city national program.
Feeding a Region With Nearly 630,000 Hungry Residents
The meals packed Friday morning will go to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, a Raleigh-headquartered organization founded in 1980 that serves 34 counties through a network of more than 800 local partner agencies, including soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters, per Forbes. The food bank operates six distribution branches spread across central and eastern North Carolina.
The need is substantial. Feeding America data shows an estimated 629,980 residents — a food insecurity rate of 14.8 percent — face hunger within the food bank's 34-county service area. Regional food banks have faced elevated demand driven by rising food costs and reductions to safety-net programs, a strain that gives Friday's meal-packing effort added weight beyond its symbolic timing.
A Statutory Day of Service, and a Region's Broader Remembrance
Raleigh's event is anchored in federal law. In 2009, Congress officially designated September 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, making it one of only two federally authorized national days of service alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Day, according to Wikipedia. That designation followed years of advocacy from 9/11 families seeking to transform the tragedy into a recurring occasion for community action rather than only mourning.
Nearby, in Chatham County, a permanent memorial in Pittsboro features a steel support beam recovered from the World Trade Center's North Tower, mounted at a 9-degree, 11-minute angle pointing toward Ground Zero, according to WCTI News 12. The monument offers a site for quiet reflection that stands apart from Raleigh's active service model. Across the Triangle, institutions have paired that kind of solemn tribute with civic action; Durham marked the 25th anniversary with a free performance of Mozart's Requiem by a 200-voice chorus and the Durham Symphony Orchestra, as Hoodline reported ahead of the Durham Armory concert. Together, the region's approach this year reflects a broader national shift — one in which the anniversary is observed through both artistic remembrance and hands-on volunteer work aimed squarely at a local hunger crisis.
