Peace Lutheran volunteers pack meals for Feed My Starving Children

The sanctuary at Peace Lutheran Church in Lombard transformed for two days into an efficient packing plant.

Seats that normally hold the congregation were removed to make way for seven stations, each with a different task. There was even a forklift outside the church along Butterfield Road.

The product? Almost 140,000 simple meals packed with ingredients like rice, dry vegetables, soy and chicken flavoring.

More than 700 volunteers recently gathered at Peace Lutheran for the first MobilePack event for Feed My Starving Children, a Christian nonprofit organization that ships meals to malnourished children in nearly 70 countries.

Since January, Peace Lutheran has raised almost $31,000 to fund meals. And last Friday and Saturday, volunteers with assembly line efficiency physically packed 139,968 meals, organizers say.

According to Feed My Starving Children, which has locations in Aurora and Schaumburg, each meal costs 22 cents to produce, and 93 percent of donations go directly to the food program.

Feed My Starving Children partners with churches, missionary groups and other organizations to distribute food to children globally. Wheaton volunteer Karen Mitchell said the partnerships are designed to maintain a “minimal” loss rate of food and serve a long-term commitment to those in need.

“They know that it’s not a Band-Aid,” Mitchell said of Feed My Starving Children’s efforts.

Volunteer Ralph Blessing said Peace Lutheran recruited volunteers and raised donations with little pushing or prodding. Before Easter, the church sent 1,000 letters to the community highlighting services with fliers about the MobilePack event.

“Our hope is we do this every year,” said Blessing, of Downers Grove. “We’re going to try to partner with other churches. Hopefully this becomes a Lombard event.”

Part of his motivation for participating sprang from seeing children with poor nutrition and little access to water during the church’s annual mission trip to Honduras.

“We’re put here to serve,” Blessing said. “That’s our job. It can get very depressing at times. But, at the same time, you see these tremendous miracles.”

Like seeing children still have hope despite their poverty and lack of basic medical care, Blessing said.

He wants fellow volunteers to remember the transformation, not in the sanctuary, but in the images of malnourished children receiving meals in a Feed My Starving Children video presented at the MobilePack event.

“What’s more loving than feeding someone who’s hungry?” he said.

For information, visit Feed My Starving Children at fmsc.org.