One Million Meals for Haiti

On Father's Day we had the opportunity to go support a local event where the Salvation Army and Numana Inc. partnered together to see if our community could put together one million meals for Haiti.  Numana Inc. supplied the ingredients and the Salvation Army found the place and advertised for volunteer support.  We found out about it through our church.  After church we headed over to see how we could help.  It was a meal of rice and beans that we were putting together.  Everyone was able to help in some way.

Everything was set up assembly line style.  One person poured in the bouillon/vitamin supplement powder, one person poured in the rice, another the beans, and another the soy protein.  Then another person weighed the bags, and lightened them or added more if need be, then they were sealed, and boxed.  Each bag contained 6 servings, I wish I would have taken a picture of a bag, because it wasn't a lot of food.  I realize it expands with water...but considering they say that a person in Haiti is lucky if they get to eat once a day - it breaks your heart.

Ryan is standing near the funnel where we poured all the ingredients through into a bag. 

Happy Father's Day.

(he was so grateful we did this on his day).

We were all lucky enough to wear an apron, hair net, and food service gloves.

This picture of Luke does NOT do him justice for the day.  I have never seen him work so hard.  He was amazing.  Sure he whined every once in a while about when was it time to leave, but he never quit working.  He was such a great helper. Olivia worked hard for a solid hour.  When she was done helping, she started helping in a different way.  They were playing Reggae music and Olivia started dancing.  She brightened the day of all those close to her.  It was cute. 

Every time we were able to complete 10,000 meals they would have someone ring the gong.  Luke was able to ring it twice, and Olivia was brave enough to ring it once.  They introduced her as the cutest little girl they had ever seen.

My Rock Star!  Way to go Luke!

Kalamazoo wasn't able to complete one million meals, but we were able to do over 620,000 meals.  This service travels around to different parts of the country.  Look for it in your area.  It's a great thing.