GSK remembers 9/11, works to feed hungry children

To commemorate the 10 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, hundreds of GlaxoSmithKline workers in Research Triangle Park spent Friday packaging meals to be shipped to school children in Haiti and Nicaragua.

“This anniversary is an opportunity to remember and to rekindle the spirit of kindness, compassion and service that helped make our nation stronger after the tragic events of 9/11,” Deirdre Connelly, president of North America Pharmaceuticals at GlaxoSmithKline, said in a statement.

GSK’s Philadelphia facility also packaged meals on Friday. The two facilities are packaging 120,000 meal combined.

"I feel no child should go hungry, but also 9/11 is very near and dear to my heart because I had a friend who was in the (World Trade Center) tower when it came down," GSK worker Alma Smalko said. "I actually worked in New York at the time, and we actually saw the buildings fall."

GSK partnered with international hunger relief agency Stop Hunger Now to package the nutritious dehydrated rice and soy meals that include dehydrated vegetables.

 “You’re demonstrating that by working together, we can make a difference,” Stop Hunger Now President Ray Buchanan told GSK workers. “By working together, we can attack something as large as world hunger.”