I am back from Memphis and completely exhausted! We had a great weekend and I learned a lot! First let me explain just what I was doing in Memphis. Global Aid Network is partnering with Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) and Hope Presbyterian Church to provide 100,000 meals to people down in Haiti. FMSC brings the food to be packed, Hope Church provides the $$ and volunteers, and Global Aid Network ships and distributes the food to the people who need it. My co-worker April and I went along to take photos and videos and work the "Social Media" aspect of the event. We set up a booth with brochures and a card with all of our social networking information on it. Then we had a place for people to like our Facebook page right on the spot. We also did a drawing for an IPod touch giveaway. The event took place all day Saturday and Sunday. Most of our time was spent taking photos and shooting video of the participants packing the food. To give you a little bit better picture of what exactly takes place at a food packing event I am inserting a blog post that I wrote for the GAiN blog.
"Chicken! Veggies! Soy! Rice! That’s the battle cry this weekend at Hope Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN. Over 500 volunteers have gathered Saturday and Sunday to pack meals for starving children in Haiti. Did you know that 18,000 children die every day from starvation or starvation related diseases? Not if we can help it! Global Aid Network is partnering with Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) and Hope Presbyterian to pack 100,000 meals to provide hope and healing for these children.
During each packing session volunteers gather together on the steps to hear a presentation from Scott Hendrix, VP Relief and Development at GAiN and Kevin Ewing, MobilePack supervisor. They watch a video about a family in Haiti expressing their gratitude for the meals they have received. The volunteers are then trained in the mixing of the actual meals. Each ingredient is scooped into a funnel, mixed into a bag, weighed, and sealed. Then the meals are packed into boxes and loaded onto pallets to be shipped out by Global Aid Network. During the 2 hour sessions each group of “mixers” becomes a small community, a picture of the Body of Christ working together to serve the Master. Each time a new box is needed at a table, shouts of joy and celebration can be heard across the Gym. “Table four has one more!”
After the session is complete, the volunteers gather together again for a closing word from Scott and Kevin. Scott shares about the work that GAiN is doing around the world and the impact that the food from FMSC is having on the families receiving it. They announce the number of meals packed during that session and then all the participants gather around the newly packed boxes to pray over the food and the distribution. Another beautiful picture of the Church coming together to love people across the world whom they may never meet."
This explains a little bit better about what happens at a Food Packing event. I actually got to pack food during one of the sessions, and it was so fun! Overall the event was a huge success and I look forward to getting to do something like this again. It was great to see this side of the ministry before I head off the Guatemala in November!
