VIDEO: Heartbreak, Hope, Haiti

This past week marked six months since an earthquake devastated Haiti. We’d like to share a special video we produced to tell the story of Haiti’s poverty and earthquake devastation as seen first-hand by our Mission Team in May. Almost every picture in this video was shot by one of our volunteers either here in Iowa or in Haiti. I hope it touches you and helps you to realize that we are making a difference.

VIDEO:

To volunteer to help with this year’s packaging event (September 2 – 5, 2010) 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.”

Volunteers Pour In To Package Thousands of Meals For Haiti

The week-long Help for Haiti food packaging event started strong today with 1,227 volunteers showing up to package between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m.! During the first four hours of packaging this morning, volunteers assembled 213,840 meals that will be shipped to Haiti’s earthquake victims.

WHO Radio’s Van and Bonnie show broadcast live from Lutheran Church of Hope during the 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. shift while volunteers packaged the meals containing rice, vitamins, soy protein and dried vegetables.

More than 5,900 volunteers have registered to package meals throughout the week working toward our goal of packaging 2 million meals for Haitians. Originally, we were hoping to raise enough in donations to fund 300,000 meals. In just five weeks, individuals, churches, schools and businesses have raised enough funds to purchase the raw ingredients for volunteers to package as many as 2 million meals!

If you are still interested in volunteering, there are still open spots for host volunteers. Click here to learn more about host volunteering and available shifts.

We cannot thank you enough for all of your encouragement and support as we work to feed the hungry! God bless!

Help for Haiti – Details Coming Soon

We are in the process of finalizing the details for the February 22 Help for Haiti packaging event, and are overwhelmed and thankful for the outpouring of concern and interest in volunteering. We will soon be opening up registration for volunteers on the Web site. In the meantime, here is what we know:

* The Help for Haiti packaging event will take place during the week of February 22
* During that week we will package as many meals as funds allow
* Packaging will take place at the Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines
* Teams of 8-10 individuals will work in 1-hour shifts to package the meals
* Once completed, meals will be shipped to Haiti as soon as possible for those affected by the earthquakes

PLEASE REMEMBER: We are overjoyed with the overwhelming response of people who would like to volunteer. The number of meals packaged will depend completely on funding we receive until then. If you are interested in donating to Meals from the Heartland, below are some ways you can help:

* Donate here online. Remember, one meal costs just 15 cents, so $50 feeds 333 hungry children
* “Scan Away Hunger” and donate $1, $5 or $10 when you purchase your groceries at any Fareway store
* Attend “Hearts for Haiti” this Friday, February 5, where all proceeds go toward packaging meals for Haiti. You can get more details here.

We will continue to update the blog with information concerning the event as information becomes available to us. We are forever grateful for your interest and commitment to Meals from the Heartland and look forward to your help as we provide Help for Haiti.

Ways You Can Provide “Help for Haiti”

It’s been more than two weeks since devastating earthquakes hit Haiti. From the beginning, people everywhere began donating their time, money and resources to help toward the recovery. However, knowing where we started over a year ago, earthquake recovery is just the beginning. The people of Haiti still need our help today, tomorrow and in the future.

Meals from the Heartland has committed to help feed the poor any way we can, but we need your help. Please consider donating to Meals from the Heartland or another trusted organization. Below are some ways you can help make a difference with Meals from the Heartland.

* On February 5, “Hearts for Haiti,” a Valentine’s Day-themed benefit, will be held to raise money for Haiti earthquake victims. The event’s organizer, Olivia Ahlrichs, will donate all proceeds from the event to Meals from the Heartland. This money will go toward purchasing the supplies for packaging meals for Haiti. The benefit begins at 6 p.m. at the Copper Creek Golf Course Clubhouse, in Pleasant Hill.

“Hearts for Haiti” will feature a silent auction, light hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar, as well as entertainment by Mike Butterworth, lead singer for the Iowa-based band The Nadas, and Bonne Finken, fellow singer/songwriter. Valentine’s Day gifts in the form of chocolate covered strawberries, truffles and children’s tutu’s will be available for purchase and can be delivered to recipients on Valentine’s Day weekend. Tickets for “Hearts for Haiti” will be sold for $15 at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. You can also go here for more information.

* During the week of February 22, we will be partnering with Lutheran Church of Hope to hold a special Haiti food packaging event. While we are still in the process of organizing the event and will soon be asking for volunteers, please remember we can only package as much food as we have funding for, so donate today!

REMEMBER: Nearly $.95 of every $1 donated to Meals from the Heartland is applied directly to our mission. That $.95 is specifically connected to purchasing raw materials, assembling those materials into ready to eat food packages, and delivering those meals directly to those in need.

You can donate toward this cause here. We will package as many meals as we have funding for du

ring the event and all meals will immediately be shipped to Haiti.

Please consider donating your time and/or money to any of the above causes. The people of Haiti need our help now more than ever.

Thank you & God bless!

Making a Difference in Haiti

Thanks to you, Meals from the Heartland is making a difference in the lives of many people currently struggling in Haiti. More than two million meals were shipped to Haiti after our fall packaging event, and they are feeding people every day. I hope that you will take a minute to read the stories in the following posts to see how meals packaged by Iowans are being used to feed starving Haitians.

We are in the process of organizing a special Haiti food packaging event to be held in February. Funds are currently being raised so we can order ingredients and supplies to package and ship as much food as possible. We’ve received overwhelming response from people hoping to package meals – but please remember the amount of meals we can package depends entirely on how much money we raise to purchase ingredients. To put it into perspective: a $50 contribution will provide 300 meals, or enough food for 10 children for one month!

We will soon begin asking volunteers to sign up for packaging planned to start on February 22 at Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines, and possibly other locations. Please continue to monitor our Web site for further details. If you were a team lead last fall, we may not have all of your team members’ email addresses. Please feel free to forward this post on to your teammates who helped package or friends and family to help us spread the word.

God Bless!
The Meals from the Heartland Team

Help For Haiti – Pray, Give, Serve

Help for Haiti

Our hearts are hurting for the people of Haiti. The earthquake and aftershocks have created devastation beyond our imagination. The loss of life is staggering, thousands remain unaccounted for, and hundreds of thousands need medical care, water and food.  They are at risk and in trouble, and their road to recover will be long.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. It is a country of 9 million people that geographically is slightly smaller that the state of Maryland.

Nearly 2 million of the meals packaged at last fall’s Meals from the Heartland were shipped to Haiti and distributed through two partners, Lifeline Christian Ministries and Food for the Poor.

What can we do… what can you do… to provide Help for Haiti?

Please pray, give and serve as Meals from the Heartland is turning all available resources to helping the people of Haiti.

Pray:

Pray for God’s comfort and love to bless the people of Haiti, that help would quickly come from around the world to help those in need, and that He would touch each of our hearts to know what we can do to help.

We are receiving emails from those in Haiti… following are excerpts from two:

“PLEASE PRAY: So many lives lost, so much suffering, so much devastation, and so much that is hard to understand. Yet in my 20 years in Haiti, I have learned that the Haitian people are resilient and although they have not seen this kind of destruction before they will rise above it. Today’s struggle is to provide water and food for the kids and to keep ourselves strong and not allow fear or discouragement to creep in.  “

“We don’t have supplies to treat all the people…they are coming here in large numbers with broken limbs and severe wounds… a man and woman came to me and said their little boy’s arm was cut off in their home when the wall collapsed.  He is 18 months old and all he had of a right arm was a stub above the elbow.  I had to dress it and use duct tape for a pressure bandage as that is all we have and then I gave him some sleeping medicine.”

Give:

Consider giving to Meals from the Heartland or another organization that you trust. Please see links for two of our partners below, Lifeline Christian Ministries and Food for the Poor.  There are many others who are providing emergency aid, including Red Cross and the Salvation Army. It is not important where you give, but that you do.

If you choose to make a financial contribution to Meals from the Heartland, your gift will go towards the purchase of food ingredients that will be packaged and shipped to Haiti as quickly as possible (please see “Serve” below), as Meals from the Heartland is diverting all of its resources to Help for Haiti. Nearly 300,000 meals of packaged food in storage are being redirected immediately, with transportation expected via a US C-130 cargo plane scheduled for Des Moines.

Serve:

Based on contributions received between now and February 22nd, your gift will support local efforts to package food that week.  Meals from the Heartland is partnering with Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines to package as much food as possible the week of February 22nd to send to Haiti. Watch for additional posts or please check backfor details on how you can sign-up to volunteer to package food.

Please remember, we are only able to package and ship food to Haiti that we purchase in advance, so your tax-deductible gift is important.

Please pray, give and serve…
Thank you!

God bless,
Meals from the Heartland Team

PS: Following are two Meals from the Heartland partner organizations who are recipients of food we have donated to Haiti… Lifeline Christian Ministries: www.Lifeline.org; Food for the Poor: www.foodforthepoor.org

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.”

Help For Haiti – Jan. 13, 2010

Mark Aeilts, the Meals from the Heartland board chair, talks about how meals packaged in 2009 will help with the Haitian earthquake recovery efforts. (click link below to listen)

Mark Aeilts Talking About Haiti on Lite 107.1

We’d like the thank Lite 107.1 for the time and letting us use this segment on our Web site.

If you would like to help Meals from the Heartland and Lutheran Church of Hope with “Help for Haiti,” make sure you click here for more information.

Please check back for additional details.