Volunteers Prepare More Than 52,000 Meals for Starving Children

As Saturday morning turned into Saturday afternoon, a second shift of volunteers from Kids Against Hunger Utica Satellite gathered in the basement of Utica's Trinity Lutheran Church. After a half hour of training, the group set to work.

The volunteers formed an assembly line of scoopers, baggers, sealers and runners as they committed the next two hours to produce a nonstop food-packaging frenzy. Rice and other ingredients were measured and poured into more than 50,000 packages.

Sebastian Lucido came from Rochester to pitch in. He marveled at the feverish pace in which everybody was working.

"It reminds me of that old I Love Lucy episode," said Lucido.

Fortunately for all those involved, the volunteers were slightly more adept at rapidly packaging food.

After three shifts and more than 200 volunteers, the Kids Against Hunger Utica Satellite surpassed its goal of packaging 52,000 meals. On Saturday, March 2, volunteers gathered in the basement of a local church and packaged a total of 54,543 meals for the benefit of starving children.

Lucy and Ethel pale in comparison.

The tools to fight malnutrition, starvation

Dr. Richard Proudfit founded Kids Against Hunger in 1999. The Utica Satellite is one of many mobile packaging centers across the country.

Volunteers gather to package a mix of highly nutritional food for starving and malnourished children. Typically, the resulting food supply is split into thirds. One third of the meals remains in the community. One third is sent to current disaster relief efforts. The final third is put into storage in case of future disaster.

Once packaged, the meals have a storage life of more than three years.

The Kids Against Hunger food package is a special recipe designed to meet the nutritional requirements of a growing child. Without proper nourishment, a child's cognitive development becomes severely debilitated.

Each package consists of six servings of high-quality white rice, fortified soy, a dehydrated vegetable mix, and chicken-flavored vitamin and mineral powder. It contains 21 essential vitamins and minerals.

Community steps up, helps out

Janet Harrell is the president of both the Kids Against Hunger Utica Satellite and the Kiwanis Club of Utica-Shelby Township. She organized the event and its sponsors. Its success is owed in large part to her hard work.

Harrell organized a diverse group to sponsor the event. Besides the Kiwanis Club, the sponsors were Community Christian Church, Trinity Lutheran Church, the Vivian Vivio Stolaruk and Steve Stolaruk Foundation, and RHEMA.

One-hundred percent of the sponsorship money goes to the food packaging supplies.

David Cummings is executive director for Community Christian Church of Sterling Heights. He appreciated the mix of religious, humanitarian and community groups.

"It's several organizations making connections, working together for one cause," said Cummings. "We'll partner with people to get the job done any way we can."

One of those partners is RHEMA, or Restoring Hope through Education and Medical Aid. John Romine serves on its board and is the director of International Education. And despite his title, Romine wasn't here to supervise. He had his shirtsleeves rolled up, working alongside everyone in order to reach that 52,000 mark.

"It's phenomenal," said Romine. "This whole thing is about people giving back. No one here is starving but still they come and give a few hours of their time."

Those few hours have resulted in 54,543 packaged meals for starving children, both local and abroad. Not bad for a day's work.