Volunteers Aim To Pack 800K Meals In 4 Days For FMSC
October 12, 2022 at 11:18 p.m.
Volunteers Aim To Pack 800K Meals In 4 Days For FMSC
By Jackie [email protected]
Event chair Megan Stone said FMSC started in 2014. They were planning on having an event in 2020, but it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first big relaunch since the pandemic.
Over the four-day period, there will be 3,500 volunteers. Packing sessions are split up into two-hour sessions. The mannapacks that are created are made up of a vitamins, veggies, soy and rice formula to nourish starving and malnourished children. The meals will be shipped to over 70 countries.
“These are distributed to areas where there is no other means of receiving meals. I mean, they don’t have any safety nets, any government organizations that provide lunch programs, you know food pantry. Some of the countries don’t even have refrigeration, restaurants. It’s a really critical need around the world,” Stone said.
Steering Committee member Thomas Wogoman said he gets a lot of questions of why they don’t give meals to people in the U.S. There is food insecurity and hunger, then there’s starvation. The meals are specifically designed for people who are starving, near death children and are designed to be nutritious.
The original goal was to pack 500,000 meals, but that goal increased as more funding came in, Stone said. The new goal is to pack 800,000 meals. They hoped to have packed 200,000 meals by the end of Wednesday.
Steering Committee member Clarice Nist said there will be a corporate shift today and they are thinking that one shift will possibly pack 25% of the meals during the four-day event.
Cost of a meal is 24 cents to make and $88 will feed a child for a year. Stone said Warsaw’s FMSC set a goal of raising $115,000. There were corporate sponsors, which included SYM Financial Advisors, Zimmer Biomet, DePuy, Paragon Medical, Silveus Insurance, Anika, Tecomet, Wildman, First United Methodist Church - Bourbon, PayPro Tec, St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, North Winona Church of the Brethren and Crouse Body Shop, among others.
Every school in Warsaw Community Schools fundraised for FMSC.
“We asked (the schools) to do something. We didn’t want to have to depend on them, but we wanted them to have some invested effort into the event and into that outcome,” Stone said.
Steering Committee member Krista Polston said the goal for each school was $2,500 because they wanted to raise enough money to pay for the ingredients of the meals while students were packing meals. At the end of the fundraising, WCS raised over $38,000. Some of the schools did a phone-a-thon and another did Jar Wars, Stone said. Lakeview Middle School raised over $13,000.
Polston said the steering committee has been planning this week’s event before January.
People are eager to help knowing they’re doing something for a good cause and the students are having the tangible experience of packing the food themselves.
Wogoman said the site also had to be coordinated. Polston said the TRAC is a well-used facility. Logistics like parking and getting tables set up were also an issue.
Wogoman said warehouse duties, such as loading and unloading, also needed to be dealt with, as well as making sure everything is packaged correctly. He said those doing warehouse duties are kept busy throughout shifts and between shifts.
Stone said having contributed to the event financially, she hopes students have a really fun, enjoyable experience with the event. Stone said she wants the event to build community, compassion and the spirit of giving to help “our neighbors globally.”
Event chair Megan Stone said FMSC started in 2014. They were planning on having an event in 2020, but it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first big relaunch since the pandemic.
Over the four-day period, there will be 3,500 volunteers. Packing sessions are split up into two-hour sessions. The mannapacks that are created are made up of a vitamins, veggies, soy and rice formula to nourish starving and malnourished children. The meals will be shipped to over 70 countries.
“These are distributed to areas where there is no other means of receiving meals. I mean, they don’t have any safety nets, any government organizations that provide lunch programs, you know food pantry. Some of the countries don’t even have refrigeration, restaurants. It’s a really critical need around the world,” Stone said.
Steering Committee member Thomas Wogoman said he gets a lot of questions of why they don’t give meals to people in the U.S. There is food insecurity and hunger, then there’s starvation. The meals are specifically designed for people who are starving, near death children and are designed to be nutritious.
The original goal was to pack 500,000 meals, but that goal increased as more funding came in, Stone said. The new goal is to pack 800,000 meals. They hoped to have packed 200,000 meals by the end of Wednesday.
Steering Committee member Clarice Nist said there will be a corporate shift today and they are thinking that one shift will possibly pack 25% of the meals during the four-day event.
Cost of a meal is 24 cents to make and $88 will feed a child for a year. Stone said Warsaw’s FMSC set a goal of raising $115,000. There were corporate sponsors, which included SYM Financial Advisors, Zimmer Biomet, DePuy, Paragon Medical, Silveus Insurance, Anika, Tecomet, Wildman, First United Methodist Church - Bourbon, PayPro Tec, St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, North Winona Church of the Brethren and Crouse Body Shop, among others.
Every school in Warsaw Community Schools fundraised for FMSC.
“We asked (the schools) to do something. We didn’t want to have to depend on them, but we wanted them to have some invested effort into the event and into that outcome,” Stone said.
Steering Committee member Krista Polston said the goal for each school was $2,500 because they wanted to raise enough money to pay for the ingredients of the meals while students were packing meals. At the end of the fundraising, WCS raised over $38,000. Some of the schools did a phone-a-thon and another did Jar Wars, Stone said. Lakeview Middle School raised over $13,000.
Polston said the steering committee has been planning this week’s event before January.
People are eager to help knowing they’re doing something for a good cause and the students are having the tangible experience of packing the food themselves.
Wogoman said the site also had to be coordinated. Polston said the TRAC is a well-used facility. Logistics like parking and getting tables set up were also an issue.
Wogoman said warehouse duties, such as loading and unloading, also needed to be dealt with, as well as making sure everything is packaged correctly. He said those doing warehouse duties are kept busy throughout shifts and between shifts.
Stone said having contributed to the event financially, she hopes students have a really fun, enjoyable experience with the event. Stone said she wants the event to build community, compassion and the spirit of giving to help “our neighbors globally.”
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