As you probably know, Orion Associates offers our employees many company-sponsored volunteer opportunities throughout the year. One of the companies we have worked closely with over the past four years is Feed My Starving Children. Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) provides life-saving meals all over the world to people who need them most, including places affected by natural disaster and those in economic despair. The non-profit was founded in 1987 by a Minnesota businessman who felt compelled to help the starving children he encountered on his mission trips to Honduras.
The work FMSC does is simple; children and adults hand-pack meals for starving children and the meals are shipped to those in need. FMSC distributes meal packs in nearly 70 countries through missionary partnerships at orphanages, schools, clinics, refugee camps and malnourishment centers. FMSC’s philosophy is sustainability. Rather than send just one shipment of food to a country, they continue to provide food to their mission partners so they can maintain feeding their people.
FMSC worked together with scientists from Cargill, General Mills and Pillsbury to create a nutritional rice pack that is easy to ship and prepare, meets the nutritional needs of malnourished kids and is culturally acceptable and inexpensive. The “MannaPack” is made up of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and provides the nutrients to not only prevent starvation but improve the health and growth rate of children.
A single bag of food—which provides highly nutritious meals for six children—costs around $1.32 to produce, and 92% of all donations to FMSC goes directly toward the food program. Currently there are seven designated meal packing locations in Minnesota, Illinois and Arizona. FMSC also have mobile packing events which allow groups to host a packing event anywhere that meets certain criteria. Each FMSC location has multiple packing times each day. Each shift is two hours long and group-oriented, so it’s a great opportunity for schools, work groups, families and church groups. The minimum age requirement to participate is five years old.
At Orion Associates, we participate in at least four packing events a year and send 30-50 people each time. Our staff enjoys participating in these events with co-workers, family members and children. To date as an organization we have packed over 300,000 meals for Feed My Starving Children.
Currently FMSC is packing meals and sending them to Typhoon Haiyan survivors in the Philippines.
If you are interested in learning more, volunteering or donating to FMSC please visit their website www.fmsc.org.
