On The Edge: Manna Meals
Article by Ella Knight, On The Edge Student Reporter Edgewood Middle School
The National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) of Edgewood Middle School recently had the experience of packing meals for the hungry through the Feed My Starving Children organization.
Feed My Starving Children makes Manna Meals, which are “packed with love from the volunteers.” Each meal has a beneficial amount of vitamins, vegetables, soy and rice, and each can feed up to six children. On Wednesday, Nov. 6, the NJHS traveled to Nappanee Missionary Church to pack the meals. The NJHS students were separated into stations, and in about 1 and a half hours, helped make 93,528 total meals. These meals were enough to feed 256 children for an entire year. The NJHS learned so much about the little things that it takes to make a big difference.
Austin Hollowell stated, “It was a lot of fun packaging the food, and knowing that it was an amazing cause just made the experience so much more enjoyable.”
My personal thoughts on the trip were all positive. It was stunning to see students and people from all over northern Indiana give up a little bit of their time, and come to the Nappanee Missionary Church to make the Manna Meals. When I was at the church, there was so much to do and so much to pack that I lost track of time. I knew that every Manna Meal we made had enough food to keep six more children going, and this kept me going. In the end, Edgewood’s final meal numbers were a little over 15,000. I felt so honored and proud to help the hungry mainly in Haiti, but also all over the world. I know that making these meals put a smile on other people’s faces, but not as big of a smile as it put on mine.
About 6,200 children die every day from starvation –that’s 186,000 a month and 2,232,000 a year. Sadly, Americans throw away approximately 263 million pounds of food a day, and this food is normally a surplus and edible. The Feed My Starving Children organization is fighting hard to stop world hunger. The NJHS students learned about Nappanee Missionary Church’s goal to make 2.2 million meals, and came to help.
Many of the students felt the experience was an eye-opener and enjoyable. They saved many lives, and learned the importance of volunteering and how much they do matter to other people in the world. If one wants to donate or volunteer with the Feed My Starving Children organization, they can contact the Nappanee Missionary Church in Nappanee or go to fmsc.org to find more details.
And, good news! The goal of making over 2.2 million meals was achieved late in the afternoon on Saturday, Nov. 7. Thank you to all of the participants from NJHS, other volunteers and donators!
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The article above was selected from the Edgewood Middle School student written magazine On The Edge. Future articles will be selected from the magazine and will be featured on StaceyPageOnline.com. Topics will include, but are not limited to, sports, community news, school news, current events and entertainment news. Please contact Alyssa Richardson at[email protected] with questions.)