Nearly 700 volunteers still needed to pack more than 200,000 meals

More than 1,000 volunteers manned packing station in March, producing 209,952 meals, destined for Haiti, where they would be distributed by partner agencies of Feed My Starving Children. The March pack was destroyed when the ingredients revealed some sort of contamination. FMSC has provided the ingredients for a repack Oct. 26 and 27

McCOOK, Nebraska -- According to John Heywood, (1497-1580), "Many hands make light work," and organizers of the Feed My Starving Children MobilePack are in need of many hands at the Armed Forces Reserve Center, Oct. 26 and 27, a half mile east of McCook on U.S. Hwy 6 &34.

Traci Wiemers, one of the core coordinators for the project, reported Wednesday that they still have 700 open slots available, a sharp contrast to the original pack in March, which fell victim to contamination and had to be destroyed. More than 1,000 area residents participated in that pack, creating 209,952 meals.

Wiemers offers this encouragement, "Approximately 18,000 children die a day from hunger and hunger related diseases (data from UNICEF). We get to be Jesus' hands and pack more than 200,000 meals as Jesus has called us to do in Matthew 25:35, 'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.'"

Just as in the first pack, organizers are asking volunteers to bring items for the McCook Pantry to the pack. "It's important that we meet the needs of our own community as well," Wiemers said. "Hunger shouldn't be a concern, at home, or overseas."

Addressing the concerns some people who volunteered in March may have after the pack was destroyed, Jerry Beckenhauer offered, "Well, if our team loses, we don't just quit going to the games. We pick ourselves up, brush off the loss and show up for the next game."

The need, Jerry said, hasn't gone away and sadly, won't go away anytime soon. The children the MannaPacks feed still need to eat every day and the means to provide that daily meal will be right here in McCook, ready for packaging during six two-hour shifts, available from 2:30-7:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 26, and from 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Saturday. Volunteers are needed to measure the food, seal the packages, mark the shipping boxes, refill filling stations, etc. There are tasks available for all age groups and abilities. Individuals, groups, teams and families can sign up at http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1027320. You must create a username and password to register and if you are registering for a group, list each member so that positions for each pack session are filled.

The Feed My Starving Children organization has strict guidelines in place to protect the integrity of the food and it was those guidelines that protected the children from receiving potentially tainted product, protecting their already precarious help. Those same guidelines remain in place as do the requirements to wear hair nets, closed toe shoes, and no jewelry while packing. Hair nets and hand sanitizers are available on-site.

For more information or for help in registering, contact Traci Wiemers at (308) 345-5204.