I had coffee with Scott, a long time PCC person, last week and he told me about a recent experience volunteering with Feed My Starving Children. I really enjoyed hearing about his experience and asked if he’d be willing to write it down so I could share it on the blog. Here it is. Thanks Scott!

Over the summer, on a Sunday morning, there was a notice in the PCC bulletin. It was a pretty casual announcement, along with a myriad of other things happening in and around Parkview. It mentioned another church in town that was having a special project; an opportunity to join in an effort to prepare meals for hungry people around the world. A phone number was listed to call and sign up for a two hour shift.

This was an easy decision. I knew that I was off work that day, and my wife would be out of town. So, first chance I had I call and signed up, along with my two teenage children. I thought this would be a tangible way to get my kids involved in a service project. So, when that Friday morning arrived, off we went. Of course, being a morning person, I signed up for the first shift of the day, which wasn’t until 9 am.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was amazed at their organization. Feed My Starving Children is an international organization that packages meals and ships them to various parts of the world. The gym was set up with pallets of 1 ton bags of rice and soy and bins of dried veggies and a protein mixture. Those in charge explained clearly that we would be preparing bags that would hold 6 meals; you just needed to add hot water. These meals were scientifically formulated to have all the nutrients necessary to restore or maintain one’s health, and they only cost about 19 cents each!

There were a number of stations with 6-8 people. It was an assembly line sort of deal, measure and pour the food, label, weigh, and seal the bags. There people of all ages, young and old, grade school children with their parents, retired grandmothers, and everyone in between. The work was fast paced but not really difficult or strenuous. Unless, of course, you volunteered to be one who kept the stations stocked with food, then it was much heavy lifting and running. That was me. I wanted in! As it turned out, I had a blast. It was a lot of fun to work with folks I had never met before, doing something completely worthwhile.

Not only was the work very tangible and fun, but we knew where the meals would be going and how our efforts would help starving people around the world. Feed My Starving Children is based out of Minneapolis. The goal was to package 120,000 meals. They do all the leg work of supplying the food, etc. A sponsoring church needs to commit to a minimum of 500 volunteers over a two day period. This particular weekend 900 people signed up! It was unbelievable. It was a high energy experience. FMSC’s goal for the year is 50 million meals, up from 40 million last year. Many meals get shipped to Haiti, Darfur and other impoverished places.

I was so pumped that I immediately signed up to come back the next morning. My only regret? I had commitments the rest of the day that prevented me from staying to continue working.