Mark Aeilts wins $50,000 Volunteer Service Award for meals project
July 14, 2009 by Meals from the Heartland
Filed under Blog, MftH 2009 News
A Wells Fargo Financial team member, Mark Aeilts, has been named recipient of the top 2009 Wells Fargo Volunteer Service Award, earning $50,000 for Meals From The Heartland, the largest humanitarian food packaging event in the U.S. 
Aeilts, who is senior vice president of WFF Retail Services, Des Moines, is the current chair of Meals From The Heartland, which drew more than 12,000 volunteers in 2008 who packaged 4 million meals for distribution to impoverished residents of Haiti and other countries in Central America
The award, which recognizes Aeilts’ service to the organization, was announced by Wells Fargo & Company Senior EVP Mark Oman at a surprise reception Tuesday morning in Des Moines. Representing Meals From The Heartland was a board member, the Rev. Pat Quaid, teaching pastor of Lutheran Church of Hope, which conceived the project.
Each year, Wells Fargo’s Volunteer Service Award program honors team member volunteers by awarding $300,000 to nonprofit organizations for which they volunteer through one $50,000 award, 10 awards of $10,000 each and 150 awards of $1,000. Recipients of the $10,000 and $1,000 awards are still being informed and will be announced later in the summer.
Aeilts was nominated for the award by Jeremy Erickson, a member of the Retailer Collections team. Jeremy wrote, “Mark participated in similar, yet smaller activities in 2006 and 2007. By participating he saw the opportunity to leverage Iowans’ talents and the resources within Iowa to provide significant impact for those in need.. . Mark has inspired the leaders and volunteers of this effort by his passion to help others in need and leading the group by his own example.”
After the 2008 packaging event, Aeilts visited Haiti to assist in food distribution. He also has spoken about the project to numerous organizations in Iowa and Meals From The Heartland was recognized at the 2008 World Food Summit in Des Moines.
The 2008 project also provided 12,000 pounds of perishable food items to the Central Iowa Food Bank and 12,000 school supply items to students in Iowa communities impacted by flooding and tornadoes. The 2009 packaging event is scheduled Sept. 3-7 in HyVee Hall at the Iowa Events Center.
