Feed My Starving Children is a Christian organization that is devoted to feeding hungry children all over the world. As I have mentioned in previous posts (Week 3, Week 4, Week19), they have come up with a formula for a nutritious paste that is ideally suited for ingestion and digestion by people who are actually starving and who could not eat normal food in sufficient quantities to bring them back from the brink. The paste consists of four things - powdered chicken flavoring and proteins, dried vegetable flakes, soy powder (for more protein) and rice, which is the most universally accepted grain around the world both culturally and with respect to ease of digestion and food allergies. In short, more people can and will eat rice than any other grain. These ingredients are mixed with water and create the nourishing mush that has saved many thousands of lives. They have done and continue to do a huge amount of good work, and they do it with one of the highest efficiency ratings of any of the large charities. I have included much more about them in previous weeks.
This visit was fun for Jen and I in a couple of ways. First of all, it was great to have Vicki and Brian along. They seemed to really enjoy the process, and were fascinated at how every part of the night was designed to quickly and efficiently teach people how to pack and then get as much food out the door as possible. The other great thing was that this was the first time that we actually packed food. In the past, we have volunteered for the warehouse crew because it is hard to get a spot at a table with only two people. There are lots of groups that come and work, and they like to work together, so we did support jobs instead. With four of us, we were able to get on a packing table right away. The drive to pack as much as possible, once you are standing there doing it, is really compelling. We were given a pretty easy goal, since there were a lot of young girl scouts working the other half of our table, but we immediately declared a higher one. We missed that goal, but still beat the one we were given a about 50%. Since there were a lot of young people working that night, they played music from a bunch of Disney movies while we were packing, so we kind of danced the night away. When Hakuna Matata plays, you dance, whether you mean to or not... In any case it made for a great night. When we were done, we had done this:
That means it was a decent night. We have done more boxes than this on similar week night sessions, but with a lot of young girls, there was some time lost to pictures and other distractions. Since it seems like the girls will want to come back and work more, losing a little efficiency is worth the long term benefits!
The food we packed was headed for Burkina Faso, on the East coast of Africa. You can see here where the shipments around ours were headed:
The other thing we talked about that night was the Hunger Walk, a 5K walk that benefits the Greater Chicago Food Depository and its member agencies. Jen and Vicki had decided to walk in it, and they made some final plans. The walk happened this morning, beginning at Soldier Field and walking en masse down the lakefront path to 31st street and back again. Jen told me that is was quite an undertaking due to the huge turnout. They had a record-breaking 10,000 people come out and walk. Those who walked could raise money for the GCFD, or they could earn credits for the member agency of their choice to be used in the purchase of food from the GCFD. Jen and Vicki walked for, and with our friends from the Lakeview Pantry. This is a giant fundraiser for everyone involved, and it is great that they got so many people. Jen took this picture after the walk:
This may be the largest petition ever signed, and it was signed by lots and lots of the participants. This kind of thing always brings up two ideas for me, and I think they are at the heart of helping to feed people. The first is to be amazed at how many people come out and support activities like this. It is truly astonishing, the amount of good work that is being done. On the other hand, I always shudder to thing about all the people who still do not have enough. For the last fifteen years or so, the nations of the earth have grown enough food to give every last person on earth 2800 calories per day, more than enough to live on. There is enough food for everyone, and there has been for a while. But there are still millions who are hungry every day, and more millions who are getting fat to the point of unhealthiness. It seems like it should be a no brain-er, but of course it is not. Things will never be equal, but there is a huge gulf between what we are doing now and equality. It seems like it is time to start building a bridge. The people who work tirelessly at the GCFD and the other kitchens, pantries and shelter that work with them are trying to lay the foundations of that bridge, and I, for one, intend to do all I can to help them, because it has to be demoralizing to face the statistics every day. We could feed everyone but we don't. And in spite of that, these people are still trying. For that, they deserve our respect, and all the help we can possibly give them.
For more about FMSC, go to: Feed My Starving Children
For more about the GCFD, go to: Greater Chicago Food Depository
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