Volunteers package 60,000 meals for the hungry

Though the Ministerial Association feared that snow and a changed date would keep volunteers away, hundreds of people still showed up at the C-G-D high school cafetorium on December 30 to package meals with Meals From the Heartland. With some training, the volunteers became a fast-moving and efficient machine, turning sacks of rice and soy protein into nutritious food that can be used by any culture to make a tasty meal.

Though the original goal was to raise $10,000 to package 50,000 meals, local people and organizations donated $13,117, which went to package 60,000 meals, cover expenses, and help with other events for MFTH. Joel O’Dell, the hunger fight manager on the scene, said that 60,000 was the largest amount of meals they could package outside of the Des Moines area due to room on the truck, though their organization holds a yearly event where they package 4 million meals in four days. Clarion’s packaging event helped contribute to the 15.7 million meals MFTH packaged in 2015.

O’Dell showed an instructional video and walked volunteers through the process, assisted by members of the FFA, who have experience with packaging with MFTH. O’Dell pointed out that the bags of soy protein came from Cargill out of Cedar Rapids. “That’s the actual life-saving ingredient with what we’re doing,” O’Dell said. “Iowa soybeans are literally saving people’s lives.”

For the full story and more pictures of the event, see the January 7 edition of the Monitor.