Volunteers invited to share hope, love during special holiday meal-packing sessions
Families and church groups have a meaningful way to spend Thanksgiving morning, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve this holiday season: Pack meals with Feed My Starving Children and cover the costs with a gift of $50 per volunteer.
At Feed My Starving Children meal-packing, adults and children age 5 and older hand-assemble MannaPack meals consisting of rice, soy nuggets, dehydrated vegetables, and a flavoring with 20 vitamins and minerals. The fun activity draws families and groups together, while feeding the hungry.
The $50 donation per volunteer (or $150 per household) required for the holiday packing sessions covers the cost of one box of 216 MannaPack meals, which feeds a child for seven months.
The special holiday meal-packing sessions, which also include meal packing on two Sundays in December, are called "Fully Invested" because volunteers are asked to invest both time and treasure to feed the world's hungry. Normally, Feed My Starving Children does not require a donation, but several times a year Feed My Starving Children gives volunteers the chance to become fully invested by packing meals and investing financially in them as well. Those unable to invest financially are invited to attend one of Feed My Starving Children's regular packing sessions.
"Fully Invested" sessions will be offered at the Aurora, Libertyville, and Schaumburg meal-packing sites of Feed My Starving Children:
• Thursday, Nov. 26 (Thanksgiving Day), 8:30 to 10 a.m.
• Thursday, Nov. 26 (Thanksgiving Day), 10:30 a.m. to noon
• Sunday, Dec. 13, 1 to 3 p.m.
• Sunday, Dec. 20, 1 to 3 p.m.
• Thursday, Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve), 8:30 to 10 a.m. and 10:30 to noon
• Thursday, Dec. 31 (New Year's Eve), 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
• Thursday, Dec. 31 (New Year's Eve), 12-2 pm (Libertyville and Schaumburg only)
• Thursday, Dec. 31 (New Year's Eve), 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. (Libertyville and Schaumburg only)
• Thursday, Dec. 31 (New Year's Eve), 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Reserve spots at fmsc.org/FullyInvested. There is room for 140 volunteers at the Libertyville site, 140 at the Aurora site, and 90 at the Schaumburg site for each of the six shifts.
A Christian nonprofit founded in 1987, Feed My Starving Children tackles world hunger by sending volunteer-packed, nutritious meals to 70 countries, where they are used to operate orphanages, schools, clinics and feeding programs to break the cycle of poverty. Last year, Feed My Starving Children welcomed nearly 900,000 volunteers to pack more than 229 million meals. The Minnesota-based charity spends 92 percent of total donations directly on feeding the hungry and has earned the highest four-star rating from Charity Navigator for 10 consecutive years. For more information about Feed My Starving Children, visit fmsc.org.