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Want to feed the world? Open a quart-sized plastic bag. Add a scoop of vitamin-fortified, chicken-flavored powder. Add dehydrated vegetables, a scoop of soy nuggets, and one of uncooked white rice. Seal the bag and send it overseas. You have just provided a balanced meal for a family of six or half a dozen schoolchildren in a poor country.
From April 1 to April 3, Hidden Valley’s auditorium rocked with activity as a hundred volunteers at a time packed hundreds of meals a minute. The food, purchased by local donations, was provided, along with equipment and professional supervision, by a mobile packing unit of Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), a Minnesota-based Christian relief ministry.
When the event was over, more than 950 people from Dodgeville, Richland Center, and the surrounding area had packed 229,608 meals for FMSC’s hunger relief efforts around the world. The semi-truck load of packaged dry food will feed 629 people for a year.
Volunteers worked for two-hour shifts. Each session began with a presentation about Feed My Starving Children: its origins when a Minnesota businessman who witnessed starvation began to do something about it; its work with food scientists to design a palatable, nutrient-rich meal mix for pennies a serving; and its steady growth, leading to the shipment of over 73 million meals last year.
Everyone donned hairnets and disinfected their hands. At each 15-person “packing station,” some were bag openers, others scooped food into bags, still others weighed each bag – no less than 380 grams, no more than 400 – while the rest sealed, packed, moved, weighed and stacked cartons by the hundreds. The sound system pounded out Christian rock music while everyone laughed and talked and worked.
Four FMSC staff members roamed the floor, offering directions and encouragement. They are on the road every week at this time of year, said Erin Arndt, the mobile unit’s supervisor. FMSC has four in-house packing operations – three in the Twin Cities and one in the Chicago area – but the three mobile operations are seeing the fastest growth in volunteer participation, she said.
Having volunteers do the packing achieves several goals. First, it keeps costs low – according to the FMSC website, volunteers proved to be not only cheaper but better than automated packing equipment. And it gives people a chance to be blessed by serving. At events like the one in Dodgeville, it also builds community, according to Arndt. “It provides a way for churches to forgo any differences they have and work together,” she said. FMSC does no advertising, and its overseas partner organizations pay to ship the food. Thus 94 cents of every dollar given to FMSC goes to buy food.
For the food packed at Dodgeville, the next stop would be a warehouse in Aurora, Illinois. Where it goes from there is still undetermined, said Arndt. The CEO and board of FMSC target their distributions based on need, logistics, and a sense of God’s leading, she said. Currently many meals go to Haiti, where they provide a healthy relief from “Haitian biscuit” – scraps of food mixed with dried mud.
At the target locations, food is distributed by mission and relief organizations. FMSC’s website lists more than two dozen “partner organizations,” and there are others. They do not partner with foreign governments, Arndt said. Although they put Christ in the center of everything they do, she said, they do not require doctrinal agreement from partner groups or hungry people.
The goal for HVCC’s three-day event was to pack 225,000 meals, and the final number of 229,608 would have been greater if the supply of dehydrated vegetables hadn’t run out late on Friday. Cherie Rudesill, who arranged the event for HVCC and led a fund drive that netted over $39,000 to pay for it, struggled to put her feelings into words when it was over. “It was just overwhelming, beyond what I’d even anticipated,” she said.
Cherie said a small portion of the money raised will remain on deposit for a future event, which she and her team will discuss next month. Based on the positive response this year, they are leaning strongly toward hosting FMSC again next year, she said.
In addition to Cherie, HVCC’s planning team for the Feed My Starving Children event includes Jim Auer, Rae Ann Butteris, Matt Byers, Amy Enzenroth, Sue Gevelinger, Pat Lindsey, Regina Lord, Colleen Madden, Jodie May, Chausti Weinbrenner, and Heather Zumm.
Want to feed the world? Open a quart-sized plastic bag. Add a scoop of vitamin-fortified, chicken-flavored powder. Add dehydrated vegetables, a scoop of soy nuggets, and one of uncooked white rice. Seal the bag and send it overseas. You have just provided a balanced meal for a family of six or half a dozen schoolchildren in a poor country.
