Wisconsin—Clear Lake Church members and friends spent two evenings in Dec. 2005 packaging meals for hungry children around the world.

Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), founded in 1987, is a nonprofit Christian organization located in Brooklyn Park and Eagan, Minn., which depends largely on volunteer labor. When staff members organized a three-day effort in Amery, Wis., the Adventist church was among several local groups who responded.

Volunteers worked in two-hour shifts packaging a dry combination of rice, vitamins/minerals, dehydrated vegetables, and soy “chicken” powder which can be cooked in boiling water anywhere in the world. The formula meets the daily needs of severely malnourished children under the age of five. Each assembled package feeds six children.

Alice Garrett, Adventist Community Services director, organized 35 church members to participate on Thurs. evening, Dec. 8, and again on Sat. evening, Dec. 10. The FMSC staff expressed appreciation for the tremendous turnout Sat. evening—a total of 76 area volunteers packaged 27,000 meals in two hours.

A total of 179,000 meals were packaged during the three days the organization spent in Amery. Staff members commented they only brought along enough ingredients for 164,000 meals, but somehow the Lord multiplied the “loaves and fishes” to feed His starving children.

Currently, food is being supplied in about 30 countries; among them are Haiti, Liberia, Peru, Tanzania, Ghana, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, India, and Sri Lanka. Recently the emphasis has been to provide meals to orphans of last year’s tsunami in Southeast Asia.

It costs about $62 to feed a child for an entire year. For more information visit website: www.fmsc.org.

Beth Nelson, Clear Lake Church communication secretary