The Center for Student Leadership, Ethics, and Public Service is sponsoring a day of service and discussion in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 20 in Talley Student Center.

According to Brigid Belko, a senior in natural resources and a Service Leadership Consultant helping to organize the event, the Martin Luther King Jr. Service Challenge will begin with a series of discussions.

“[Participants] will start out having discussions, talking about things Martin Luther King stood for — privilege, helping your fellow neighbors and discuss how we can do that in Raleigh and at a national level,” she said.

The service aspect of the challenge is in conjunction with Stop Hunger Now, according to Belko.

She said the volunteers will work to package food that will be able to withstand shipment to other countries.

“They have four ingredients — they package it all in little plastic bags and seal them and they are good for three years. You just add water to them.” Belko said.

Belko added that the packaged food is often given to people who are malnourished because of the abundant vitamins and protein it provides.

According to Zach Adams, the Student Senate president, Student Government will provide financial support for the Stop Hunger Now project.

He said they passed a bill Wednesday called the MLK Service Challenge Support Act, “which provided funding from Student Government’s budget to provide 500 meals.”

In addition to support from Student Government, Belko said a grant will help to improve this year’s Service Challenge.

“We’ve been doing it for a couple of years now,” she said. “What is really exciting about this year is that we received a $1,000 CASE [Carter Academic Service Entrepreneur] Grant.”

CSLEPS will use the grant to bring students from Ligon Middle School to participate in the challenge, according to Belko.

“To bring in middle school students as well is a new aspect of it and [we want to] talk about social justice issues and what is going on in the world today compared with what was going on in the days of Martin Luther King,” Deepti Vanguri, a senior in the College of Management and an organizer of the event, said.

Belko said that the presence of the middle school students and volunteers at the event may cause crowding.

“We had 175 volunteers last year and we are not necessarily looking to expand the program,” she said. “We are focusing on the quality rather than the quantity.”

Because Martin Luther King Jr. was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Belko said she hopes to schedule theatrical performances from black fraternities for the event.

Deputy News Editor Saja Hindi contributed to this story.