GC attendees lend hand to help Convoy of Hope feed thousands
More than 400 General Council attendees partnered
with Convoy of
Hope to achieve the organization’s
goal of packing 100,000 meals
for hungry
children
around the world.
Youth volunteers from across the country participated
in Convoy
of Hope’s packing party Friday morning.
Working in assembly lines,
students
measured i
ngredients
into plastic bags, weighed and
heat-sealed
the bags,
and packed the completed bags into boxes
for shipment.
By Kara Chase
Convention exhibitors frequently give away free gifts to draw passers-by to their booths. But at Convoy of Hope’s 2009 General Council exhibit, the organization put visitors to work in an effort to pack 100,000 meals for children in need.
From Tuesday, August 4 through Friday, August 7, Convoy of Hope partnered with Joyce Meyer Ministries and Feed My Starving Children to host multiple two-hour food packing parties, during which volunteers helped hand-pack meals for starving children around the world. Convoy of Hope’s goal was to pack 100,000 meals during the week of General Council.
Based out of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Feed My Starving Children hosts packing parties across the country, providing meals for partner organizations, such as Convoy of Hope, to distribute in impoverished communities worldwide. Each meal consists of four components: rice, soy protein, dehydrated vegetables and chicken flavoring consisting of 20 vitamins and minerals. These nutrient-rich meals can mean the difference between life and death for a starving child. Every day, Convoy of Hope’s feeding program provides meals for 18,000 children in Latin American and Kenya.
Donning hairnets, General Council volunteers were split into several groups and assembled the meals in an assembly line process – measuring ingredients into plastic bags, weighing and sealing each bag, and packing the prepared meals into boxes for shipment. Enthusiasm was high among the youth volunteers who served Friday morning. With chants, cheers and good-natured competitions to beat the record for the number of bags packed in two hours, the teens worked hard to reach the Convoy of Hope’s goal of 100,00 meals.
As the youth sacrificed their time to help people in need, packing party coordinators recognized the impact being made on the young people themselves. “They’re being changed,” said Jess Swanson, Feed My Starving Children Off-Site Packing supervisor.
When the meal packing party came to a close Friday morning, Jeff Nene, Convoy of Hope’s director of Communications, reported that more than 400 volunteers had helped pack 106,920 meals, significantly surpassing the original goal. These nutritious meals will fill the bellies of some of the 18,000 children in Latin America and Kenya whose lives have been saved and enriched through Convoy of Hope’s daily feeding program.
To learn more about Convoy of Hope, visit www.convoyofhope.org. For more information on how to host a Feed My Starving Children packing party, go to http://www.fmsc.org.