Feed My Starving Children MobilePack Event
September 10 & 11, 2010
There are many opportunities to serve before the actual mobile pack event. Several members of the community have been gathering over the past few months to prepare for the event. The opportunities to serve on this committee include the following: helping with public relations, recruiting, finances, logistics, getting ready for the Ithaca Festival, and the Ithaca Festival Parade. The meeting is open to the community, if you would like to attend you might either simply show up, or call the church for more information.
What is it?
Feed My Starving Children is a not-for-profit Christian-based organization out of Minnesota. (See www.FMSC.org). Their goal is to help some of the most acutely impoverished children in the world. They serve over 60 countries, (Haiti received 25 million meals last year). 94% of the funding they receive goes towards the food production (6% is used for administration). For our MobilePack event, 100% of your financial help goes directly towards the food we will be packing.
How does it work?
Feed My Starving Children operates four full-time food packaging facilities in the Midwest. In addition, for big community events (100,000 meals or larger), they offer the opportunity for people to participate in what they call “MobilePack” events. During these events people take bulk, nutritionally balanced food of four types (rice, vegetables, soy, and vitamins) and combine them into smaller meal packets. These packets are then boxed and shipped to villages, where agencies distribute the food for at least one full year at that same location. Each meal currently cost $.19 a meal to pack, (the Ithaca event contracted for $.17 a meal last year).
How can you help?
Hands-on help
On September 10 and 11th, Ithaca will host a MobilePack event. The event will begin Friday, September 10th, at 10:00 a.m., running through midnight of that evening. It will then continue on Saturday, September 11th, beginning at 11:00 a.m., and tentatively end at 7:00 p.m.. Individuals or groups may sign up to work two hours shifts. Groups can consist of any number between six and 60. If you have a group interested in working a two hour shift, you should call or e-mail the church before the middle of July (607–273–9017 or e-mail: TLC@trinityithaca.org). At the end of July, individuals or groups may still sign up online to work a two hour shift at www.FMSC.org. For more information on what working at a MobilePack event looks like, check out the video on our home page.
Financial help – we will need to raise $17,000 by September 11!
- Giving online: If you choose, you can give directly online by going to Trinity's account at FMSC.
- Giving directly: You may also choose to give directly towards the event by writing a check to “Trinity Lutheran Church” who is hosting the Ithaca event. (Memo your check for “Feed My Starving Children.”) The advantage of giving directly to Trinity Lutheran Church is we will receive matching grants up to $1600 from the organization Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
- Other ways to give: There will be a Feed My Starving Children booth at the Ithaca Festival. If you would like to help work the booth at the festival to promote the event, contact Nancy at 273 - 9017. You may also challenge/encourage your friends, your fellow students, or your work colleagues to take a two-hour block of time to work the event. On the two days of the MobilePack event, Feed My Starving Children will also have T-shirts available to purchase, which helped fund the work that they do. Trinity also hosts “Prayer and Pie” events the first Wednesday of each month at 1:00 p.m.. We pray for a half an hour, and have fellowship over pie for half an hour. Contact the church, if you would like to come for one of the prayer and pie gatherings. (So we have enough pie!)
Signing up to help – we will need to have 500 people helping!
- Signing your group up early: if you have a group of six or more, it’s a good idea to call Trinity Lutheran Church at (607) 273-9017 and schedule your group before it goes online. (otherwise the group may not be able to stay as a group). We will pre-register your group and block out your time before the event goes online.
- Signing up online: Near the end of July, Feed My Starving Children will post an online registration page for our event at www.FMSC.org.
What jobs can I do?
MobilePack events include jobs that almost anyone can do from ages seven and up. The jobs are wide-ranging and include some of the following:
- Setting up for the event (Friday, September 10th, 8:00 a.m.) – setting up tables, taping down extension cords, setting up display areas, setting up food packing equipment.
- Labeling food packets
- Measuring out food for individual meal packets
- Weighing food packets
- Sealing food packets
- Placing food packets in boxes
- Loading boxes on pallets
- Moving bulk food containers to packing stations
- Cleaning up - At the end of each two hour shift, and at the end of the event.