Feed My Starving Children

No, not mine. Actual, starving children. Although mine use the word "starving" on what seems like a daily basis, they, like most of us, have no idea what it actually feels like to be hungry let alone starving.

This week our church, Christ's Church of the Valley (CCV), has been undertaking an enormous volunteer effort that stirred my passion and I felt the need to get the word out. They have paired with an organization called Feed My Starving Children to pack 1,000,000 meals to be sent to starving an malnourished children all over the world. One million meals!!! That is incredible! With the help of volunteers in the church and people in the community, we are SO close to reaching this goal. Nearly 5000 people signed up to pack meals for two hour shifts at a time throughout the week. Anyone from Kindergarten and older were able to donate their time to make this possible. Each meal costs $.20 which translates to a monetary need for $200,000 to create these necessary gifts. A small investment in the lives of children who will be forever changed by knowing that someone, somewhere thinks their lives are worthy of something as simple as a meal.

Our family signed up for a shift on Thursday morning and we were so moved by seeing the way that something that is so easy for us to do, changes the lives of these children around the world.

We worked assembly line style as quickly and efficiently as possible to assemble the packages and get as many meals packed as we could during our short span of time. Our team alone packaged 20 boxes or 4320 meals! As a group, we packed 187 boxes; 40,392 meals! A mere drop in the bucket to reach the ultimate goal of 1,000,000 but still significant to the 111 children who will now have meals for the entire year!

It was incredible to be a part of such a generous and selfless operation. Our 6 and 7 year olds were pretty shocked to see the "before" pictures of children their ages who weighed less than 20 pounds. They learned a lot about the injustices of the world but also that they have the power to change it, even at their young ages.

This effort does not end when we reach our goal of 1,000,000 meals. Feed My Starving Children is on track to pack nearly 100 million meals in 2010. They run purely on donations, volunteers and word-of-mouth advertising. 94% of all donations are used to fund the feeding program itself with only the remaining 6% for administrative work. 94%!!!!! That fact in itself is a testament to the heart of this organization. That being said, I am providing two links for your own research and/or contributions. $74 feeds one child for an entire year! But any amount that is given from your heart will be greatly appreciated. If you would like to learn more about Feed My Starving Children and contribute directly to their cause click here. Or if you would like to specifically contribute to CCV's goal of 1,000,000 meals, you can click here to make a one-time contribution. "...I tell you the truth, anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me." Matthew 25:40

Thank you for your generosity and may God bless you and your loved ones!