125,000 Meals for Marmelade School Kids in Haiti
On May 18th at the Frank Jones Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 700 local volunteers will pack 125,000 nutritious meals for kids in Haiti. The meals will leave on a truck Saturday evening and arrive in Haiti later this summer. We call it a “One-day Family Mission Trip to Haiti and never leave the Seacoast of New Hampshire”. The event is hosted by Help for Haiti, a charity based in Rye, NH. We are responsible for raising the money for the food and associated shipping, and recruiting the local volunteers. The packing of the food is managed by Feed My Starving Children, another 501c3 charity from Minnesota. The cost of the food and shipping is $34,000. Feed My Starving Children ships the bulk food to Portsmouth and provides experts in the packing process. They create a fun-filled day for everyone. This organization will pack over 150 million meals this year for starving people around the world and we are proud to partner with them.The other key to this event is our partnership with local churches, the biggest being Bethany Church in Greenland, NH. They provide many volunteers, technical support, and music for the day of the event. They also support it financially. Other churches from Concord, MA to Concord, NH and little towns like Sanbornton, NH also provide funds and volunteers. The event also recruits community volunteers from local schools where kids come and spend a few hours doing some “hands on” charity work. The Pack event itself is a lively and enjoyable day of people working shoulder to shoulder, taking bulk containers of food that weigh up to 800 pounds each, and breaking them down into sealed meal-sized plastic bags that can be safely stored for up to a year in difficult climate conditions. The food costs 22 cents per meal and 5 more cents per meal to ship it to Haiti where Help for Haiti has a school of 250 kids in Marmelade, a mountain community in northwest Haiti. For 27 cents a day, each child gets a hot meal at school every day which is critical to their learning, as many arrive at school having eaten nothing. A meal each day is not a reality in much of Haiti. A hungry child does not learn very well.You can help by sending a donation to Help for Haiti, PO Box 103, Rye, NH 03870. Please put “Food Pack” in the memo line of your check. You can also donate by using the “Donate” button on our web page. A check for $270 buys 1000 meals and $500 provides 1,850 meals of nutritious food delivered to kids in the mountains of Haiti. Even a check for $27 will provide 100 meals. We are well short of our commitment of $34,000, so please help if you can. In Matthew 25:40 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” Thank you,Jim & Betsy Willey Help for Haiti Tax ID # 27-2928991