TOTALLY Cool!

I went on the GREATEST field trip with the 6th graders today! There's a place here in Eagan called FEED MY STARVING CHILDREN. It's a non-profit, Christian organization that focuses on feeding the hungry of the world. We are in the process of preparing our 6th graders for their HUGE "end of elementary school" project, called exhibition. One aspect of the exhibition is an "action piece"...doing something to "better our world", so we took them to FMSC to give them a "real life" example of something they could do.

Feed My Starving Children's brochure says: "Founded in 1987, Feed My Starving Children has a mission of 'Feeding God's Starving Children Hungry in Body and Spirit'." Their approach is simple...volunteers of all ages hand-pack nutritious meals for severely malnourished children. The meals are distributed to starving children in over 55 countries around the world.

FMSC has a unique food mixture which was designed specifically for severely malnourished children by Minnesota food scientists. The meals consist of rice, textured soy protein, dehydrated vegetables, and 20 vitamins and minerals with a vegetarian chicken flavoring (we got samples after the session, and it's NOT bad...kind of a mix between Rice-A-Roni and ramen noodles...!). The facility is 100% volunteer run, and it costs 17 cents to produce each meal.

We started with a short "lecture", and learned some SOBERING facts...for instance, every 4.8 seconds, someone dies from starvation...18,000 children die EACH DAY from starvation or starvation related causes...how HORRIBLE!!! FMSC "contracts" with various religious groups, and humanitarian organizations, and feeds one child (or group of children) for an ENTIRE YEAR.

We were introduced (through photographs) to a child in an orphanage in El Salvador. His name is Omar, and, at age 8, weighed only 19 pounds. After eating FMSC food for 6 months, he weighed 73 pounds, and is now a healthy child...it was AMAZING!

After the lecture, we washed our hands, donned EVER SO ATTRACTIVE hairnets, and gathered in the "bagging room". We learned about the FOUR things to be added to each bag (mentioned above), and how to bag it, seal it, and box it up for shipment (ours are scheduled to head to Uganda on Thursday).

Our kids (along with various staff and parent volunteers, as well as various corporate and church groups who were also there to "bag stuff up") did a GREAT JOB...the morning group bagged 10,584 meals (each bag feeds ONE child SIX meals, or SIX children ONCE). The volunteer who led the session said that we saved TWENTY NINE kids from dying of starvation. The afternoon group bagged 13,176 meals, saving THIRTY SIX kids from starvation.

What an amazing experience, and what a COOL organization. You can learn more about them at www.fmsc.org. They have "drop in nights" for people to just "show up" and bag meals. They are also looking for volunteers to help with various aspects of the process, and I THINK I'm going to get involved...what a REWARDING experience, and a GREAT cause!!!

It's really HEARTWARMING to know that there are organizations out there like FEED MY STARVING CHILDREN to help the needy of the world. I was TRULY blessed to be a part of this one.

Hope YOUR day was FULL of fulfillment and blessings too!!!