Can We Talk 2

Rise Up Against Hunger

         Tomorrow I will participate with a local group to pack meals for a foreign country. It usually involves barley, rice, dried vegetables, a vitamin pack, and wheat. It's enough for a family of four for one meal. Studies have shown that when people are hungry, they over-populate. There are lots of reasons for that, some intentional, like knowing some of your children will die, so you have more. You need children to take care of you when you are old. Some unintentional, like feeding a different kind of hunger, or just staying warm in your poverty.

         To get the meals, they have to send the kids to school. If they want to eat, they educate their children. Schooling is optional, and some poor people give away or sell their children. Sending them to school guarantees food for the family. Local missionaries or social workers give instructions on boiling water and cooking the grains after opening the vitamin pack. The grain is packed in a cone shape clear bag, so all they do is open the tip, the vitamin pack falls out first, then the rest into the boiling water.

         Local communities, schools or churches buy the supplies, an 18 wheeler full, which is expensive, and they pack the meals in assembly lines. We, the workers, wear hair nets, take our stations and stay put for about two hours. A few people run the finished bags over to the weighing station to make sure they're full. Some people seal them and pack them in shipping boxes. About 20 to 40 people can pack 10,000 meals in a few hours. The organization has lots of experience in organizing people who've never done it before and are very efficient. The volunteers provide tables, and only a few chairs, and clean up afterward. There is a lot of grain dust and a few spills.

         Doing it this way saves over $300 in labor costs, educates the volunteers, and leaves them with a good feeling. Not only have they purchased this food, they have had hands on experience with packaging it and preparing it for shipping.

         We only do it once a year. We missed a few years when we just couldn't get enough money together. I figured our effort feeds 100 families of 4 for 5 days a week, for 20 weeks. Ten thousand meals sounds like a lot, but is it really? Some families have more than 4. And what about when school isn't in? Of course, if each child gets a meal, then they have some left over for breakfast or weekends. Last year our meals went to Haiti. Hopefully, these children will benefit from their schooling and will get jobs when they are older.