Meals from the Heartland Day 4: More Than 4.2 Million Meals Packaged

News Release

September 3, 2011

Meals from the Heartland Day 4: More Than 4.2 Million Meals Packaged

DES MOINES, Iowa – Thousands of volunteers from across Iowa, and even the country, came together this week to take part in the nation’s largest volunteer food packaging event of the year. By the end of the event Saturday, 4,214,592 meals were packaged over four days by a total of 13,602 volunteers.

From August 31 through September 3, volunteers gathered at Hy-Vee Hall for the 2011 Meals from the Heartland Annual Hunger Fight. The meals packaged during the event will be provided to malnourished and starving people in Iowa, New Mexico, Haiti, South Africa and Kenya.

Despite recent less-than-favorable economic conditions, Iowans donated enough to fund the packaging and transport of more than 4 million meals through online and on-site donations up until the last minute of packaging.

Highlights of the event:

• On the opening night of the event, more than 1,700 Central Iowa high school students packaged 441,936 meals during the “Student Challenge,” sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred.
• Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and his wife stopped by the event Thursday night to help package the 20 millionth meal since the organization started the annual events in 2008.
• 2011 marked the first year the organization filled all available volunteer positions.
• Meals from the Heartland has evolved into a year-round effort with Mobile Hunger Fight opportunities available outside of the annual event.

For more information about Meals from the Heartland or to donate, please visit www.MealsfromtheHeartland.org.

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Fareway and KCCI team up to Support Meals from the Heartland

You can help support local meal packaging events by shopping at Fareway through April 24th!  Watch this video provided by KCCI and Fareway to see how.

 

More than 4 million meals packed during 2010 Meals from the Heartland Event

More than 14,437 people from 11 states and 6 countries gathered in Central Iowa from Sept. 2 – 5 to package 4,490,640 meals for Meals from the Heartland. The event is thought to be the United State’s largest volunteer food packaging event. The meals are currently on their way to  malnourished children and families living in Haiti, Jamaica, South Africa, and New Mexico. Support will also be provided to homeless veterans, homeless shelters and food banks in Iowa.

Highlights of the event:

• Volunteers came from eleven states, including: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
• Besides the United States, six other countries were represented by volunteers. Those included: China, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Russia and Switzerland.
• More than 70 businesses, 80 churches and two-dozen area schools supported the event by contributing money, donated goods, services or other support, including sponsoring teams of volunteers to help package.
• On opening night of the event, 800 students from 21 area high schools packaged 327,888 meals during the “Student Challenge”, sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred.
• Volunteers also donated thousands of pounds of food for the Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) food pantry.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this event a success!

Great Local Artists To Perform During 2010 Packaging Event!

What’s better than whistling while you work?  Well, how about whistling along to some great local artists that have donated their time to perform while Meals from the Heartland and thousands of volunteers package to help feed the starving around the world?

All we can say is WE ARE TRULY BLESSED!

Below are the artists, dates and times they will be performing.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 2

Dueling Pianos 5:30-6:30pm
Tony Talbot 7:00-7:30pm
The Estate 7:30-9:00pm

FRIDAY, SEPT. 3

Dave Eickelberg & Band 5:30-6:30pm
Tony Talbot 6:30-7:00pm
Certainty Band 7:00-8:00pm

SATURDAY, SEPT. 4

Ryan Buck & Band 4:00-5:00
Tony Talbot
John Cheatem 5:00-6:00

SUNDAY, SEPT. 5

Buster and the Punks 5:00-6:00pm
Chris Petrick & Band 6:00-7:00pm
John Cheatem 7:00-8:00pm

Maybe you can reserve a packaging time during your favorite?

VIDEO: Heartbreak, Hope, Haiti

We’d like to share a special video we produced following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The video tells the story of Haiti’s poverty and the earthquake devastation as seen first-hand by our Mission Team. Almost every picture in this video was shot by one of our volunteers either here in Iowa or in Haiti.

VIDEO:

To volunteer to help with this year’s packaging event please click on this link. If you would like to donate to help Meals from the Heartland please click here.

God Bless!

Starvation is real. People are suffering. And we can help.

Your Generosity Continues To Feed Hungry Kids!

We’ve received more news from Haiti and our partners at Lifeline Christian Mission that Meals from the Heartland food packages are still helping kids in Haiti. The following is an excerpt from a recent Lifeline newsletter out of Haiti:

Food Distributions
Lifeline’s supply of food to distribute to the people in the tent cities (Relief Distribution) has now dwindled to the “Kids Food” that we receive from Kids Against Hunger, Impact Lives, Outreach International and Meals From The Heartland.  The other foods that were being shipped in have stopped coming (those from large organizations like World Food Program, etc.).

I am seeing better health in the kids that daily receive the hot meals through Lifeline, but there is no shortage of people coming to clinic who are in desperate need.  We continue to see many malnourished elderly, women, children and infants.

Thank you for your continued support of Meals from the Heartland! Without your time, donations and prayers, we wouldn’t be making such a difference!

Blessings,
The Meals from the Heartland Team

Packaging Volunteers Needed In Pella!

We hope you had a blessed Easter! We wanted to share with you a great packaging opportunity that will be taking place on Saturday, April 17 in Pella.

Pella Meals from the Heartland food packaging event is scheduled for April 17th at the Vermeer Global Pavilion in Pella, IA, from 8 am to 5 pm.  The Pella Volunteer Committee organizing the event expects to have a great turnout and would like to invite you to join them!

Here are some key facts and dates to keep in mind…

1) A team is generally 10 individuals, age 5 to 105.  Teams are asked to sign-up for a 2 hour time slot.  The time slots will begin at 8 and 8:30, 10 and 10:30, 12 and 12:30, 2 and 2:30, and 4 and 4:30.

2) If you are signing up teams with small children, please ensure that you have 1 adult as a part of the team for every 2 children.

Sign up by visiting: www.iowatelecom.net/pellameals and click on the link to volunteer or signup teams to package meals

Central Iowa’s support of earthquake relief in Haiti is making a difference. On Monday,  2 million meals were delivered to Florida where Lifeline Christian Ministries, Food For The Poor and Fellowship of Christian Farmers will ship the meals to Haiti for distribution to schools, orphanages, mission programs and other organizations.

The Pella event will be a part of helping us reach our goal of supplying more than 2.5 million meals to Haiti for earthquake relief.

Thanks again for your support of Meals from the Heartland!

Blessings!
The Meals from the Heartland Team

Isaiah 58:10 “Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.”

Rocking Meals for Haiti

Please join the Des Moines Blaze semi-professional football team this Saturday for a concert benefiting Meals from the Heartland!

Ricky Jimenez (@RickyDT97 on Twitter) , a Puerto Rico native and Des Moines Blaze football player, has organized the event to be held at Vaudeville Mews at 212 4th St. in downtown Des Moines. Jimenez has worked hard to coordinate the show as the cause holds a personal spot in his heart.

“I don’t want this concert to be a success, I need it to be a success,” Jimenez said. “I am doing it through my football team the Des Moines Blaze but it carries such personal weight for me. I think of the hurricanes, floods, the natural catastrophes I lived through and saw back home in Puerto Rico. I know this is exponentially larger. It makes me weep to think how many families have buried relatives and how many just lost family members and have nothing to bury.”

Doors for the concert open at 11 a.m. and admission is $15 with all proceeds going to Meals from the Heartland to help provide meals to those affected by the January earthquakes in Haiti.

The all-ages show will begin at noon and will feature local Des Moines bands including The Atudes, John Hardy, Shovel Kids, Decoy, Finn Miles, Tripp Marxx and Cashes Rivers.

Volunteers with Meals from the Heartland will also be on hand to discuss and answer questions about the effort.

You may read more about the concert at Ricky Jimenez’s blog at http://dt97.wordpress.com/ .

Haiti Relief Pours In

Meals from the Heartland has had the honor, over the last couple years, to have truly humbling support form our community as well as the local and national media.  As we come closer to the Help for Haiti packaging event on February 22nd, we’re seeing interest and commitments growing at an outstanding pace.

In just 30 days we have surpassed our goal of raising funding to package 300,000 meals for those suffering from the Haiti earthquakes to six times that.  YES! Thanks to our volunteers and Meals from the Heartland, the Help for Haiti event will be able to package 1.9 million meals!

Here is some of the media coverage from the local CBS affiliate, KCCI, that talks about Help for Haiti and the strides we have made in accomplishing this feat.

While Meals from the Heartland has worked hard in getting the word out, we do want to thank those that have helped with personal efforts.  We have seen everything from schools and social clubs to churches as well as our voice carried through social media to get the masses educated and motivated.  We can’t thank you enough.

Remember, the event is less than a week away and we could still use donations and volunteers.  To donate, please click here and submit your information.  If you would like to set up a team to package next week, please click here.

Thank you so much for your effort and your generosity.

God Bless!
The Meals from the Heartland Team

Around The Globe

Meals from the Heartland provides food to hungry around the world. From Iowa to South Africa, our mission is to end world hunger.  Please pray, give and serve as Meals from the Heartland becomes the hunger fighting capitol of the world.

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