1,149,969 Meals Packed!

Isaiah 58:10 says, “Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as the noon.”

One sunny Saturday in February was extra bright, thanks to volunteers from Oakwood and 10 other local churches who participated in the 2012 Hunger Initiative. Gathering at eight locations across Minnesota, more than 4,000 volunteers joined forces with three hunger-relief organizations to package more than one million life-saving meals for the hungry in the Horn of Africa.

Dozens of volunteers from Oakwood teamed up with volunteers from Bridgewood Church in Savage and Brookwood Church in Shakopee to pack 112,104 meals at Shakopee Junior High School. The churches collected financial donations to cover the cost of the food; members of the Oakwood family raised $3786.06, of which $218.06 was raised by the Oakwood children. Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit hunger-relief organization, provided all of the food, supplies, equipment, expertise and experience for the packing sessions.

Volunteers from eight other partner churches were also packing meals that day at other locations, under the direction of Feed My Starving Children and two other hunger-relief organizations: Kids Against Hunger and ImpactLives. Altogether in a single day, the Hunger Initiative volunteers packaged 1,149,969 meals to send to the hungry in the Horn of Africa.

Wearing hair nets and gloves, volunteers of all ages hand-packed, weighed, sealed, boxed and labeled ”Manna Packs” of rice with chicken flavoring, dehydrated vegetables and soy nuggets. Food scientists developed the special formula to include easily digestible protein, carbohydrates and vitamins. It’s a healthy, nutrient-rich meal to help those with empty stomachs not just survive but also thrive.

Organizers say these Manna Packs will save thousands of lives. The meals are being shipped to Kenya to feed hundreds of thousands of refugees living in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. Every week, thousands of Somalis arrive at the camp, exhausted and near starvation after having walked for days in search of food.

These refugees are just a fraction of the 12 million people who are starving in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. According to the United Nations Relief Agency, these countries are experiencing the most severe drought since the 1950s. It is the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.

Packing more than one million meals in a single day is a big accomplishment and will save many lives. One million is a big number.

But here’s an even bigger number: one billion. That’s how many undernourished people live in the world today – one billion. According to Feed My Starving Children, one in six people worldwide suffer from hunger and malnutrition. It is the number-one health risk and is more prevalent than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Hunger.

Want to help, too? Feed the hungry by supporting the mission of Feed My Starving Children.

• Pray for the millions of starving people around the world and for FMSC’s ability to serve them.
• Volunteer to package meals.
• Donate online (just 24 cents pays for one meal).
• Purchase FMSC merchandise from their Online MarketPlace. One t-shirt buys 45 meals!

Here’s a slideshow featuring folks in the Oakwood family who served in the Hunger Initiative. Photos are courtesy of Allen Oakes and Sharon Anderson.

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“The servant-hearted never serve alone. Spend the whole of your one wild and beautiful life investing in many lives, and God simply will not be outdone. God extravagantly pays back everything we give away and exactly in the currency that is not of this world but the one we yearn for: Joy in Him.”  -Ann Voskamp