Community Corner
Golden Valley Church Sends 750,000 Meals to Haiti
Calvary Lutheran Church organized, packed and shipped 750,000 meals for people in need over the course of one week.
Calvary Lutheran Church in Golden Valley is cleaning up after a weeklong food packing effort to help people in Haiti.
“Every year this event brings together the entire community,” Calvary’s Director of Outreach Dawn Dresser said.
“People come from all over the metro area to focus on one goal and that’s to feed the hungry.”
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Working with Feed My Starving Children, the Golden Valley church set up multiple rice packing stations. Assembly lines of people pour rice, grains and other nutrients into a bag, which is then sealed, labeled and shipped.
At the end of the weeklong event about three thousand volunteers came through the doors, each working in two-hour shifts.
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“This is a huge event,” Feed My Starving Children’s Kevin Ewing said.
“Typically we do events that result in about 100,000 meals but the volunteers at Calvary are tackling 750,000 meals, which is rare and amazing at the same time.”
The church, which has about six thousand members from surrounding suburbs, reached out to businesses and other community groups to help.
For volunteers like Sheila Horkey, the event is a great way to give back.
“It’s a tangible event that I can participate in and actually see my efforts help children in Haiti,” the Golden Valley resident said. While it was Horkey's first time helping out at the event, Dresser says there are many repeat volunteers each year.
“This is our fourth year and at this point we have people that take vacations to be here and help,” she said. “It’s really starting to become a staple in the community.”
The meals that were packed are already on the way to Haiti, where people are still working to clean up after a devastating 7.0 earthquake hit the country last year.
“The rebuilding efforts in Haiti are still going on,” Ewing said.
“News about the clean up there may not be front page news anymore, but people there still need help with food and water.”
According to Ewing, the food will make it to Haiti in about two weeks. The food packed at Calvary Lutheran Church will feed more than two thousand children for one year.
For more information about how you can help, or sign up for a similar food packing event, check out the Feed My Starving Children website.
