Feed My Starving Children on Monday kicked off its seventh packing event to help children around the world.
Megan Stone, chair of the Feed My Starving Children MobilePack, said there will be nine packing sessions through Thursday. The first packing session started at 6 p.m. Monday.
As of about 2 p.m. Monday, there were 4,634 people registered to pack meals.
During the FMSC MobilePack, the goal is to pack 1,041,984 meals, Stone said. In 2016, the event packed 1,073,000 meals. In 2018, volunteers were able to pack 1,175,000. In 2020, the first year of the Covid pandemic, 241,000 meals were packed. In 2022, volunteers packed just under 800,000 meals.
During the four-day event, Stone said there will be 52 packing stations. For those people who need to sit, there are other jobs they can do, such as labeling. There’s also warehousing jobs people can do, which includes a lot of lifting and carrying boxes.
Monday started with volunteers watching videos on FMSC’s mission. After that, volunteers go to a handwashing station and then to packing. After the first session, Stone said volunteers during Monday’s session will learn how many meals they were able to pack.
Stone said the food is shipped to areas that need the food. They won’t know exactly where the food will go until after the event.
She said hopes the community will come together to bring hope to vulnerable children.
There were about 80 last-minute openings for people to volunteer for the event, with some of those spots available from 6 to 8 p.m. today and Wednesday. People can register for those spots at warsawmobilepacks.com.