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?

Central Iowans Come Together To Pray For Starving Children

Let The Church ARISE!

 

Meals from the Heartland volunteers and area churches are joining together on Saturday, August 28 at 7 p.m. to offer inter-denominational worship service. Join us as various leaders of community churches pray for hungry children and families around the world. The service will feature special performances and guests.

Where:

Lutheran Church of Hope
925 Jordan Creek Parkway, West Des Moines

When:

Saturday, August 28, 2010 – 7 p.m.

Details:

Prayers & Messages by
Fr. Robert Hoefler, St. Francis of Assisi
Pastor Michael Hurst, Elim Christian Fellowship
Pastor Mike Housholder, Lutheran Church of Hope

Music & Dance by
Dance-A-Cross, Heartland Youth Chorus, John Cheatem, Jason Moore, Eileen O’Brien-Denner, Perry Ross

Special Guests
Mark Aeilts, Meals from the Heartland; Dr. Jim Blessman, Blessman Ministries/S.Africa; Larry Madole, Promise for Haiti Hospital; Eric Hanson, KCCI-TV

No cost to attend. Open to all ages.

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.

Haiti Mission Trip / See KCCI-TV News reports this week – Meals from the Heartland!

A small group of Central Iowans representing Meals from the Heartland arrived back from their 6 day trip to Haiti at midnight this past Saturday. You can see stories of their experiences on KCCI News Channel 8 this Wednesday and Thursday evenings.

Port au Prince, Haiti looked worse than a war zone with thousands of building collapsed. This capital city has an area of just 15 square miles with a dense population of well-over 2 million people (compared to the Des Moines with 75 square miles and population of 200,000). It was already the poorest city and country in the western hemisphere, and the earthquake caused damage beyond imagination. Tent cities and make-shift shacks for houses were everywhere.

The mission team also visited areas Grand Goâve and Pignon. Grand Goâve, a city 30 miles west of Port au Prince, was 90% destroyed by the earthquake. All public buildings were destroyed, including the schools, city hall, and police station. The team visited and stayed at Lifeline Christian Ministries, an organization that has been in Grand Goâve for 30 years, and is a leader in the community through its Christian outreach, school, medical clinic and food aid support. Pignon, located 57 miles north of Port au Prince in the northern central plateau of the country, is a city of some 30,000 people. There an organization supports a hospital, Christian school, builds housing and provides food aide support. More stories and details to follow…

To date Meals from the Heartland has shipped more than 6 million meals in food-aid assistance to Haiti, including over 2 million meals just since the January 12 earthquake and MftH’s “Help for Haiti” emergency relief efforts began. More than 500,000 more meals will be shipped in the next few days to further assist with relief efforts.

The Haitians are still afraid of what lies ahead as a result of the earthquake (there was a 4.5 tremor while the MftH group was there).  As expected, the need to support Haiti has increased as the first-wave of support has diminished.

All were humbled throughout the trip, and hearts broke many times.

While devastation and poverty was beyond imagination, there is HOPE!

Blessings,
Meals from the Heartland Team

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WATCH KCCI TV for mission trip coverage:

As many of you know, KCCI (channel 8 ) is the Meals from the Heartland media partner.  Reporter Eric Hanson and photojournalist Dan Bolsem accompanied the team on their trip.  Their report will be aired this Wednesday and Thursday at 10 p.m., as well as a special report airing on Friday night on a girls basketball clinic in Haiti held by Drake Basketball Coach Amy Stephens and Athletic Director Sandy Hatfield-Clubb.

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REMINDER: Meals from the Heartland Fall Event at Hy-Vee Hall:

Dates for this year’s event at Hy-Vee Hall are scheduled for September 2-5. Please consider supporting our fall event through praying, serving and giving. We especially need leaders in churches and businesses who can help raise money to fund food ingredients needed for this year. Please connect online at mealsfromtheheartland.org to learn more.  We will be opening our website for sign ups in late July, so please watch for more information.

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!

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

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!

Help Provided By Iowa Meals…

We know that everyone is seeing and hearing heartbreaking stories through national media. Following are two stories of how the earthquake has impacted groups we support, and how Meals from the Heartland meals have been used to feed those in need.

Joy In Hope:

Following is an email received on Saturday night from a missionary with Joy In Hope, a non-profit organization dedicated solely to working in Haiti, that received some of the food we packaged last fall.

“My name is Leann Pye and I am a missionary living in Jacmel, Haiti.  In December we were given about 100 boxes of food from your organization.  We were planning on using it towards VBS and a soccer tournament we had planned. However, as you know, an earthquake devastated many parts of Haiti.  Jacmel is one town that has been hit hard. The road from Jacmel to Port-au-Prince is impassible with cars, tap-taps, and trucks. There are no supplies coming in and we don’t know when the road will be fixed. We have been able to feed hundreds of people daily since the earthquake because of your food. I can’t express my gratitude enough.  May God bless you and your ministry.”

In a separate email that followed, Leann wrote:

“Please communicate to your supporters that Jacmel is one area that has been greatly affected by your food. We don’t know where we would be without it. Thank you and God Bless!”

Food for the Poor:

Food for Poor, based in Miami, is one of the groups we partner with to place meals throughout the world. Leann Chong, a member of their staff that we have been working with, was in Haiti when the earthquake hit. She was trapped in her hotel for 17 hours before being rescued, but was able to return to Florida on Monday (with leg and other minor injuries).  The Food for the Poor warehouse and feeding center in Haiti was damaged, but reopened Monday and was able to serve over 20,000 meals on its first day. Due to damage of Haiti’s port, Food for the Poor is currently directing shipments to the Dominic Republic, and is transporting food to Haiti by land.

Please check back often for additional stories of how Meals from the Heartland’s efforts are helping!

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