Minnesota Associates Outreach: Packing Meals for “Feed My Starving Children”
Reported by Bonnie Strand with Photos by Carol Schoenecker
Editor’s Note: Oblate Associates reach out to the poor in various ways, often individually and sometimes as a group.The Bloomington, MN Associates originated from the Christ the King Retreat Center. The coordinator of the group is Bonnie Strand and this group is presently supported by Oblate Fathers Lon Konold and Harry Winter.
(L-R) Jim Sharpsteen, Carol Schoenecker and Sara Niemiec (back row), Bonnie Strand (front.)
On a Thursday evening in February our Oblate Associate group (that usually meets at my home) went to join others from 6 local churches to pack food for “Feed My Starving Children” at the Rainbow Food Store. This opportunity was suggested by Oblate Associates Carol & Craig Schoenecker.
The Rainbow Food place was huge, and accommodated the large group of volunteers from all over the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN area.
The store was revamped by Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) to be a warehouse and volunteer packing location. This packing event took place all the first week of February. Over 246,000 meals were packed on that Thursday evening; total for the first week equaled over 4 million!
(L-R) Carol Schoenecker, Patsy Murphy, Bonnie Strand and Sara Niemiec
Music accompanied our packing and labeling project. Most of us labeled the bags with the expiration date for the mixture of rice, dehydrated vegetables, soy and broth flavored vitamin mixture. One of our members volunteered to work the warehouse and he was very busy bringing boxes to the various packing stations for food bags.
Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is a Christian non-profit organization committed to feeding God’s children hungry in body and spirit. The approach is simple: volunteers hand-pack meals specially formulated
for malnourished children, and we sent them to mission partners running orphanages, schools, clinics and feeding programs around the world. FMSC food has reached more than 70 countries.