As previously announced, June 7 was OneTubeRadio.com night at Feed My Starving Children (FMSC).  Since the vast majority of our readers are places other than Minnesota, USA, it’s understandable that we didn’t get any volunteers signed up through the website, but my family did attend and packed meals that will be eaten by malnourished children somewhere in the world.

The event was held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Grandstand building, where we were quickly paired up with the group shown above.  They consisted of a group of neighbors and a Bible study group from a local church. In less than two hours, our table packaged about 900 food packages and sealed them in cartons for shipment.  After other volunteers filled and weighed the packages, my job was to place the bag in a sealer operated by another volunteer.  My son then frantically but neatly placed the packages from two assembly lines into cardboard boxes.

Each package contains rice, soy, a vitamin mix, and dehydrated vegetables, enough to feed a meal to several children.  Overall, everyone in attendance packed about 378 boxes, each one containing 36 food packages.  This will provide 81,648 meals, or enough to feed 223 children for one year.  In fact, on average, everyone who attended the event packed enough food to feed one child for one year.

If you are interested in volunteering, volunteers are always welcome.  The charity has permanent locations in Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, and Texas where volunteers can come for one or more shifts. It also has “MobilePack” events at many locations around the country. You can search for an upcoming opportunity at this link.  You can also make a monetery donation at this link.  Since FMSC relies heavily on volunteer labor, your donation goes a very long way to feed hungry children.  Each 22 cent donation equals a nutritious meal for a hungry child.

Meals packed by our group in 2016, on  their way to Haiti, Nicaragua, or the Phillipines.

Join us in volunteering to fight world hunger!  Friday, June 7, 6:00 PM, Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

We previously posted about Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), a Christian relief organization which packages meals for distribution to malnourished children around the world.  The meals are packaged by volunteers and then distributed by partner organizations around the world.

There is currently a large demand for meals, and on June 7-8, the organization is looking for 5000 volunteers to pack one million meals.  You’ll be part of a small assembly line that assembles the ingredients, seals them in a plastic bag, and then packs them into cartons and pallets for shipment.  You’ll probably be told which country will be receiving the meals you pack.  You can read more about the event at this link.  It’s a fun work environment.  You’ll be working almost the full time, but the work is not strenuous.  Children 5 and older are welcome with accompanying adult.

OneTubeRadio.com Night at FMSC!

On Friday and Saturday, June 7-8, FMSC will be running seven shifts.  Each one is about 2-1/2 hours long.  My family will be attending, and I signed up our group under the name OneTubeRadio.com.  We will be working on Friday, June 7, at 6:00 – 8:30 PM at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, 1265 Snelling Ave. N., St. Paul, 55108.  Plenty of free parking is available.  Also, free passes on Metro Transit are available.

We would love to have others join us!  If you want to join us, you have three options.  If you wish, you can contact me at clem.law@usa.net and I’ll add you to our reservation.  You can also add yourself to the group with this link.  If you sign up yourself, please let me know you’re coming, although if you’re an introvert and prefer to attend under the cloak of anonymity, that’s perfectly OK.

Our group will meet at about 5:30 near the Butterfly House, at the corner of Dan Patch and Underwood.  (I’ll give you my cell phone number, and we’ll also have talk-in on 146.52 MHz.)  The packing event itself starts at 6:00 in the Grandstand building.  If you’re running late, you can simply meet us there.

If you can’t make it Friday evening but want to sign up for another shift, you can do so at this link.  Many other businesses and organizations are also promoting the event.  For example, see the links from KTIS radio and HandsOn Twin Cities.

Some of the shifts will fill, so please sign up or contact me as soon as possible to reserve your spot.   You will make a real difference in ending hunger in the world.  And, if you wish, you can have your picture appear on a world-famous blog (namely, this one).  If you are not able to attend, please consider making a monetary donation.

FMSC is a Christian organization, and the evening concludes with a prayer over the packaged meals.  However, they are truly welcoming to those of all faiths or of no faith.

Today, my son and I, together with a group from our church, Christ Lutheran Church On Capitol Hill, spent a couple of hours packing meals at Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), a Christian relief organization which prepackages meals for distribution to malnourished children distributed by partner organizations around the world.  We were at the facility in Eagan, Minnesota, and the organization has similar facilities in Minnesota, Illinois, and Arizona.

The meals we packed consisted of roughly equal quantities of rice and soy, along with dehydrated vegetables and a “vitamin” component which is essentially dehydrated chicken broth.  It’s designed to be a palatable and nutritious food source.  We were given a small sample at the end of our shift, and it is quite good, although it understandably has a bit of a “dehydrated” taste to it.

FMSC also provides other similar packaged food suitable for infants and small children.

Volunteers are usually told exactly where the fruits of their labor are going to be sent, but in this case, FMSC had the good problem of having an excess of product at the moment.  But we were told that the most likely countries to receive our shipment would be Haiti, Nicaragua, or the Philippines.  We were told that our food would probably be in the hands of the intended recipients in July.

While FMSC is not primarily a disaster relief agency, since Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, they have been involved in disaster relief, they have a readily available supply of suitable food available.  After Haiyan, FMSC food was in the hands of refugees within 48 hours, and many of them had only this food to eat for a month as they concentrated on rebuilding.

Today, there were about 80 volunteers from our church and from other churches and organizations.  We worked in a very efficient assembly line operation, in teams of about 10.  I spent most of my time scooping ingredients into the packages, while other volunteers got the packages ready, sealed them, boxed them, and put the boxes on pallets.  Shown above are two of the pallets we completed.  Each pallet contains 27 boxes, with 36 packages inside each box.  Each package provides six meals.  So the picture above shows enough to feed 5832 people for one meal.  We went through one bag of rice.  I glanced at the label, and it said 2000 pounds.

We were shown the photo of an emaciated infant, and then the photo taken only four months later of a healthy child.  We were also shown his picture taken a few years later, of a happy kid indistinguishable from any other kid you would see anywhere in the world.  When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, he says he wants to be the president of Haiti.

But it was pointed out to us that for millions of kids around the world, the question “what do you want to be when you grow up” is an alien concept.  They’re so worried about the next meal that it never even occurs to them to think about the future.

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