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!

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?

Please click on the image above to download a full-resolution PDF.

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:

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.”

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!

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