Droves of Volunteers, Donors Pack 1M Meals For Malnourished Children
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
A few days ago, an influx of donors helped it nearly reach the 1 million meals goal the MobilePack committee set for the event. Co-organizer Scott Sterk said with the increase of meals, they needed more volunteers to help pack them Wednesday evening and Saturday.
Approximately 300 people “dropped what they were doing and came in last night and (signed up for) Saturday to accommodate the additional 400,000 meals,” he said.
While it’s still taking donations to reach the 1 million, Sterk isn’t surprised by the generosity of the community.
“This community is phenomenal. It’s been fantastic and not just the financial donors,” he said. “... It’s been truly a community effort from planning to fundraising. There’s not (just) one or two people who deserve the credit for this.”
The work started Wednesday evening at Madison Elementary School and will continue through Saturday. Principal Tom Kline said his school prepared for the thousands of volunteers, boxes and food by doing whatever they were asked to do.
“We prepared the background checks. Every adult that works with children had to do one, if they are working during the day. We volunteered our gym. I wanted to have our whole school have the opportunity but I guess kindergarten and first grade are too young. The second- through sixth-graders are participating in this opportunity this afternoon,” he said.
Along with Warsaw Community Schools taking part in the event, students from Lakeland Christian Academy, Warsaw Christian School and Sacred Heart are volunteering.
Kline said Madison also had to figure out the logistics for the event like parking and how to feed the people working all day at the event. Initially, two semis needed to be parked at the school. That increased to three semis with the influx of donations.
“The difficult thing is it’s all last-minute. Of course, that’s the nature of the business,” Kline said.
On Wednesday the golf and basketball teams, WCS employees and other volunteers came in and set up 110 tables and laid down tarps, Kline said. About 400 people will pack the meals during each of the 14 shifts.
“It’s pretty moving at people’s willingness to help,” Kline said.
He said the school’s secretaries were told that this MobilePack is the second largest first-time event for FMSC in the nation.
“This is (co-organizers) Scott Sterk and David Wayne’s dream and they brought it to our community,” said committee member Megan Stone.
She said it was everyone’s effort to make it a reality and over 2,400 WCS students are involved. “Part of that is we’re living out our mission statement,” she said.
Along with the schools, she said area parishes and youth groups were involved. Businesses including Biomet, Wildman, PayProTec, Maple Leaf Farms, Silveus Insurance and several anonymous donors all jumped on board. Johnson & Johnson will match or double its employees’ giving so some of the company’s employees gave to the cause, Sterk said.
Biomet employee Tina Winslow, surgical skills, said the orthopedic company had crews coming in all day Thursday and today.
“This is amazing because we’re all working together to help people who can’t do it on their own,” Winslow said. “It’s always been Biomet’s thing to help the community.”
“We have probably 6,000 volunteers who are part of this event. Every school has participated in fundraising efforts, from Jar Wars to one school had an auction. Honestly, it’s by the grace of God. We give God all the glory because it’s a miracle it all came together the way it did,” Stone said. “We’re so thankful for the community stepping up, but the important part is malnourished children will be fed. We hope to get to 1 million meals. We had some roadblocks along the way, but with the generosity of the community, we were able to pull it off.”
FMSC meals are shipped to 70 countries worldwide, Stone said. They are put in the hands of non-governmental organizations and missions that feed orphans and starving children, she said.
Each meal costs 22 cents. Sterk said it includes vitamin powder, dehydrated vegetables, soy protein and rice.
“It’s scientifically formulated for malnourished children,” Stone said.
She also noted that FMSC brought in five staff members to oversee the production.
Ursula Maley, FMSC supervisor, said, “We’ve done as big as 4 million in San Antonio. Whenever you get into the millions, it’s a big endeavor. It will feed thousands of kids. This is a great (turnout) for a first-time event.”
She said FMSC does MobilePacks year-round. It has permanent sites in Illinois, Arizona and Minnesota. Seven FMSC supervisors travel coast to coast for the mobile events, which happen all week long but more frequently on weekends.
Last year, it packed 193 million meals, and has a goal for this fiscal year of 240 million. The fiscal year runs from February to February. Its biggest recipients are Haiti, the Philippines and Nicaragua.
Maley said 80 percent of FMSC’s volunteers are kids under age 18.
“So certainly it’s a kids-feeding-kids opportunity,” she said. “This (Warsaw) event is highly attended by kids in the area so hopefully it’s an opportunity to give them knowledge of what’s going on (in the world) and give them the tools to help.”
“I think it’s a good opportunity to show God’s love to other people,” said LCA junior Carter Twombly.
He said LCA participated in a MobilePack last year and helped pack 92,000 meals at Nappanee Missions Church.
Weston Clemens, LCA senior, added, “I think it’s a great opportunity to work for people around the world who don’t have the luxuries we have here in the U.S. It’s a great way to work for God.”
“I think it’s really good and I enjoy helping people. It’s really fun, too,” said Lincoln Elementary School fifth-grader Wrigley Crabtree. “It makes me feel good.”
She said that while she’s never done anything like it before, she would definitely volunteer to do it again.
“I love it,” agreed Warsaw Community High School senior Shannon Winslow. “Everyone coming together and helping out. So many age groups and people from the community coming together. I love it.”
About 18,000 children used to die a day from malnourishment, Maley said. The last two years that number has dropped to 6,200 because of food relief organizations. By the time today’s elementary school kids are grown, “hopefully they will have figured out what to do about it so we don’t have to talk about it anymore,” she said.
FMSC runs solely on donations and the food is packed by human hands.
“Hands, heart and dollars make the organization go. Without it, we would come to a screeching halt,” she said.
Wednesday FMSC celebrated 1 billion meals since its founding. “It took us 27 years to get there, but if we keep going as we are, we will reach another 1 billion in four to five years,” she said.
For more information on the Warsaw MobilePack or to donate, visit warsawmobilepack.com
Find more information on FMSC at fmsc.org[[In-content Ad]]
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A few days ago, an influx of donors helped it nearly reach the 1 million meals goal the MobilePack committee set for the event. Co-organizer Scott Sterk said with the increase of meals, they needed more volunteers to help pack them Wednesday evening and Saturday.
Approximately 300 people “dropped what they were doing and came in last night and (signed up for) Saturday to accommodate the additional 400,000 meals,” he said.
While it’s still taking donations to reach the 1 million, Sterk isn’t surprised by the generosity of the community.
“This community is phenomenal. It’s been fantastic and not just the financial donors,” he said. “... It’s been truly a community effort from planning to fundraising. There’s not (just) one or two people who deserve the credit for this.”
The work started Wednesday evening at Madison Elementary School and will continue through Saturday. Principal Tom Kline said his school prepared for the thousands of volunteers, boxes and food by doing whatever they were asked to do.
“We prepared the background checks. Every adult that works with children had to do one, if they are working during the day. We volunteered our gym. I wanted to have our whole school have the opportunity but I guess kindergarten and first grade are too young. The second- through sixth-graders are participating in this opportunity this afternoon,” he said.
Along with Warsaw Community Schools taking part in the event, students from Lakeland Christian Academy, Warsaw Christian School and Sacred Heart are volunteering.
Kline said Madison also had to figure out the logistics for the event like parking and how to feed the people working all day at the event. Initially, two semis needed to be parked at the school. That increased to three semis with the influx of donations.
“The difficult thing is it’s all last-minute. Of course, that’s the nature of the business,” Kline said.
On Wednesday the golf and basketball teams, WCS employees and other volunteers came in and set up 110 tables and laid down tarps, Kline said. About 400 people will pack the meals during each of the 14 shifts.
“It’s pretty moving at people’s willingness to help,” Kline said.
He said the school’s secretaries were told that this MobilePack is the second largest first-time event for FMSC in the nation.
“This is (co-organizers) Scott Sterk and David Wayne’s dream and they brought it to our community,” said committee member Megan Stone.
She said it was everyone’s effort to make it a reality and over 2,400 WCS students are involved. “Part of that is we’re living out our mission statement,” she said.
Along with the schools, she said area parishes and youth groups were involved. Businesses including Biomet, Wildman, PayProTec, Maple Leaf Farms, Silveus Insurance and several anonymous donors all jumped on board. Johnson & Johnson will match or double its employees’ giving so some of the company’s employees gave to the cause, Sterk said.
Biomet employee Tina Winslow, surgical skills, said the orthopedic company had crews coming in all day Thursday and today.
“This is amazing because we’re all working together to help people who can’t do it on their own,” Winslow said. “It’s always been Biomet’s thing to help the community.”
“We have probably 6,000 volunteers who are part of this event. Every school has participated in fundraising efforts, from Jar Wars to one school had an auction. Honestly, it’s by the grace of God. We give God all the glory because it’s a miracle it all came together the way it did,” Stone said. “We’re so thankful for the community stepping up, but the important part is malnourished children will be fed. We hope to get to 1 million meals. We had some roadblocks along the way, but with the generosity of the community, we were able to pull it off.”
FMSC meals are shipped to 70 countries worldwide, Stone said. They are put in the hands of non-governmental organizations and missions that feed orphans and starving children, she said.
Each meal costs 22 cents. Sterk said it includes vitamin powder, dehydrated vegetables, soy protein and rice.
“It’s scientifically formulated for malnourished children,” Stone said.
She also noted that FMSC brought in five staff members to oversee the production.
Ursula Maley, FMSC supervisor, said, “We’ve done as big as 4 million in San Antonio. Whenever you get into the millions, it’s a big endeavor. It will feed thousands of kids. This is a great (turnout) for a first-time event.”
She said FMSC does MobilePacks year-round. It has permanent sites in Illinois, Arizona and Minnesota. Seven FMSC supervisors travel coast to coast for the mobile events, which happen all week long but more frequently on weekends.
Last year, it packed 193 million meals, and has a goal for this fiscal year of 240 million. The fiscal year runs from February to February. Its biggest recipients are Haiti, the Philippines and Nicaragua.
Maley said 80 percent of FMSC’s volunteers are kids under age 18.
“So certainly it’s a kids-feeding-kids opportunity,” she said. “This (Warsaw) event is highly attended by kids in the area so hopefully it’s an opportunity to give them knowledge of what’s going on (in the world) and give them the tools to help.”
“I think it’s a good opportunity to show God’s love to other people,” said LCA junior Carter Twombly.
He said LCA participated in a MobilePack last year and helped pack 92,000 meals at Nappanee Missions Church.
Weston Clemens, LCA senior, added, “I think it’s a great opportunity to work for people around the world who don’t have the luxuries we have here in the U.S. It’s a great way to work for God.”
“I think it’s really good and I enjoy helping people. It’s really fun, too,” said Lincoln Elementary School fifth-grader Wrigley Crabtree. “It makes me feel good.”
She said that while she’s never done anything like it before, she would definitely volunteer to do it again.
“I love it,” agreed Warsaw Community High School senior Shannon Winslow. “Everyone coming together and helping out. So many age groups and people from the community coming together. I love it.”
About 18,000 children used to die a day from malnourishment, Maley said. The last two years that number has dropped to 6,200 because of food relief organizations. By the time today’s elementary school kids are grown, “hopefully they will have figured out what to do about it so we don’t have to talk about it anymore,” she said.
FMSC runs solely on donations and the food is packed by human hands.
“Hands, heart and dollars make the organization go. Without it, we would come to a screeching halt,” she said.
Wednesday FMSC celebrated 1 billion meals since its founding. “It took us 27 years to get there, but if we keep going as we are, we will reach another 1 billion in four to five years,” she said.
For more information on the Warsaw MobilePack or to donate, visit warsawmobilepack.com
Find more information on FMSC at fmsc.org[[In-content Ad]]
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