Volunteers at St. Charles church help feed children

In an organizational effort that would have made Henry Ford proud, hundreds of volunteers worked on mini assembly lines on several shifts last week to pack meals at Hosanna! Lutheran Church in St. Charles.

The effort was organized by the nonprofit Christian organization Feed My Starving Children, which will send the meals to an orphanage in Haiti.

About 800 volunteers packed up more than 177,000 meals for the kids on Thursday night, Friday and Saturday.

"It's at the heart of who we are as a church," said senior pastor John Nelson. "We do lots of ministries, but care for children who are hurting -- it touches a deeper part of our soul and we answer in a stronger way."

The meals, which include rice, soy, a chicken/mineral mix and dried vegetables are poured into a bag by volunteers. The bags are weighed, sealed, boxed and put on a truck.

Polly Lamkin, the church's director of volunteer ministry, led the effort.

"She did a phenomenal job," Nelson said. "I'm so pleased with what she's done."

For more information on Feed My Starving Children, visit www.fmsc.org.

The group is based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, but plans to open a location in Aurora in late 2007 or early 2008.