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

Thank you for your help over Labor Day weekend in volunteering for Meals from the Heartland! What an awesome experience for the MftH Team, and we hope for you, too!

Although Meals from the Heartland may be a once-a-year humanitarian effort, the fight against hunger goes on every day and the planning for next year has already started. We hope you won’t mind if we send an occasional email (once or so a month) to share stories of the delivery of the food you helped package, dates and plans for next year, and other information.

Since Meals from the Heartland, we have received many emails and questions ranging from meal count to lost & found, and wanted to provide this email to help answer some of the most frequently asked…

1)  What was the final Meals from the Heartland meal count?

You helped us reach 4,019,094 meals packaged!

2)  When will Meals from the Heartland take place next year?

Dates for next year will depend upon space available. We are extremely blessed to have Hy-Vee Hall donated for Meals from the Heartland. Although we hope next year’s dates are approximately the same as this year, we will communicate next year’s date via email and post it on the Meals from the Heartland website once dates are set.

3)  Can I designate my United Way gift to Meals from the Heartland?

Yes, Meals from the Heartland is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that meets the criteria of the United Way to receive designated contributions. You may designate all or part of your United Way contribution to MftH… the information that you may need is as follows:

Organization name: Meals from the Heartland

Address: PO Box 71606, Clive, IA 50325

Employer ID #: 26-3443290

 Should you have questions or need help, please contact MftH at contributions@mealsfromtheheartland.org

4)  How can I become more involved with Meals from the Heartland?

Please send an email to volunteer@mealsfromtheheartland.org and express your interest.

Also, we will be sending separately a brief survey that we hope you will consider completing. We are very interested in your feedback and ideas on how we can make this even more successful next year.

5)  Have the meals been shipped and received that were packaged at Meals from the Heartland?

Most of the 14 containers of food you helped package have been shipped and are on their way (one container holds approximately 285,000 meals)! One or more full containers of food are going to: Blessman Ministries, South Africa; Cornerstone of Hope, Nigeria; Food for the Poor, Haiti; Lifeline Christian Ministries, Jamaica; and Project Elijah, Israel. Smaller quantities are being distributed to other locations and for domestic use. We will include the status of delivery of the food in future newsletters or updates, as well as reporting to you the impact the food is making.

6)  How can I access the photo(s) taken of my team by Iowa Telecom?

Please go to http://photoop.iowatelecom.net/meals09/ to access photos taken by Iowa Telecom.

7)  Did you raise all of the money need ed for 2009?

Thanks to your support, we raised all of the funding necessary to fully fund the packaging of 4 million meals. All that is needed is funding for the distribution costs for only two of the fourteen containers… one scheduled for Nigeria and the other to South Africa. Additional contributions will be sought to cover these expenses for Cornerstone of Hope Orphanage in Nigeria and Blessman Ministries in South Africa.

8)  How may I order additional MftH T-shirts & Gear?

 You have two options to order additional MftH t-shirts & gear:

 Contact Fine Designs Imprinted Sportswear, Inc.

Office: 515.986.1848 or Email: mjanssen@finedesignsinc.com

If you would like to purchase one of the 2009 orange volunteer shirts, the cost is $12.50 each (including shipping), and may be purchased by sending a check to:
Meals from the Heartland, PO Box 71606, Clive, IA 50325. Please be sure to include your mailing address, email and t-shirt size(s), and we will ship directly to you.

9)  Was there anything that was turned into “Lost & Found”?

Among the items turned in to Lost & Found include: three pairs of sunglasses, a child’s shoe, and a white polo shirt with an “Admiral” logo embroidered. If you are the owner, or know who the owner might be of any of these items, please contact us at: lost&found@mealsfromtheheartland.org

 Again, on behalf of the Meals from the Heartland Team, we want to thank you for your prayers, volunteer service, and financial gifts that made it possible to help so many impoverished people in the world. We do also hope that you will consider becoming involved again next year.

Blessings,

The Meals from the Heartland Team

“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.” Isaiah 58:10

Mailing Address:

Meals from the Heartland P.O. Box 71606

Clive, IA 50325

US

 Contact: contact@MealsFromTheHeartland.org

Telephone Number: 877-457-6384