Volunteers Pack 100,000 Meals For Children

by Breanna Fuss, Reporter
January 19, 2013 4:42 PM


Around 500 people from all over the Sioux Empire went to a local church Saturday to bag meals for children in third world countries. The meals will be sent to places like Haiti and Nicaragua where thousands of children die of hunger each day.

“Take some chicken powder, and put it in the bag, and then the dried vegetables,” said Sydnei Olsen, a volunteer from Sioux Falls.

Olsen and her dance team said the rest of these bags are filled with soybeans and rice, and then they are weighed and packed up. Olsen said taking two hours out of her time on a Saturday is an easy decision, considering her hard work is benefiting those less fortunate than her.   
 
"I just thought it was a good idea to do it,” said Olsen.
     
Olsen, along with hundreds of others from the Sioux Empire are bagging specially formulated meals for malnourished children in third world countries.

"One of our main vision is to serve other people so we heard about 'Feed My Starving Children', and we just thought it would be such a perfect event,” said Carley Costello, Servant 3 board member.

The event was put together by youth group leaders from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. Youth leaders said teaming up with ‘Feed My Starving Children,’ was on way to show people how easy and fun it can be to help those in need.

 "From one meal the kids can go from malnourished to healthy, so it’s a good feeling that we are making 100,000 meals,” said Jack Nachtigal, a Servant 3 board member.

Each volunteer is estimated to make 216 meals, which is equivalent to one box. And those 216 meals could feed nearly 300 starving children.
       
“We really want people to know they can actually make a difference in people's lives,” said Costello.
     
All it takes is a little hard work and a few cups of water.

The meals will go back to Minnesota, where Feed My Starving Children has a packing site, and then will be shipped out to one of 70 countries the organization works with, within the next few weeks.

Volunteers ended up packing 108,864 meals, which will feed 298 children for an entire year.