COON RAPIDS, Minn. – (March 31, 2017) – Across the world, there are countries in famine. Feed My Starving Children is a local charity that has been working since 1987 to get nutrition into the hands of malnourished children around the world. And now, they are trying to pack even more food in response to the hunger crisis in East Africa.
“There is a hunger crisis,” said Feed My Starving Children communications manager Alli Schwartz. “We are responding by looking to pack an additional ten million meals above and beyond what we have already planned for the year.”
Six times a day, a group of volunteers come into the packing room at Feed My Starving Children in Coon Rapids to make a difference in a developing country. These additional meals will be headed for parts of the world that are seeing an unexpected need for food.
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“Particularly in Somalia…there is a hunger crisis based on many factors from drought to war to conflict. So they have food insecurity in that region. We are hoping to pack those meals that we can send to our partners that are operating in that country so that they can feed kids that are so desperately in need of that food,” said Schwartz.
Many of these 10 million meals will also be headed to Haiti, following the destruction caused by Hurricane Matthew.
Feed My Starving Children has three permanent packing sites in the metro area, in Chanhassen, Eagan and Coon Rapids, as well as a few sites in other states. They also bring packing sites to people across the country for what they call mobilepacks. All together, the volunteers who come together at each site combine to pack up millions of meals.
To achieve their goal of 10 million extra meals, they will need 6,000 extra volunteers per month, as well as the money to purchase and pack the meals.
Their volunteers come as groups or families or even individuals to make a difference in the life of one child.
“It’s heartbreaking to know that there are so many children that are in desperate need of food. And I think it’s really nice that you can come do something locally to volunteer.”
If you’d like to get involved and help pack some meals, Feed My Starving Children would love your help. You can sign up for a two hour volunteer shift on their website. Shifts are available at each of their packing sites six days a week.
