Volunteers Needed to Pack Meals for Haitian Children

Volunteers are needed to pack 50,000 meals on Saturday, November 2, in the back gym of Grace Lutheran Church at 1200 River Road in Teaneck. Volunteers can choose one or more of three packing shifts; 10 a.m. to noon, 2 to 4 p.m., or 7 to 9 p.m.

“The Feed the Hunger Pack-a-thon for Haiti is a great hands-on chance to fight world hunger and illiteracy,” according to Kay Roseen, who co-chairs the event. “Everyone can help; friends, families, community groups of all ages and abilities. We need everybody.”

After the meals are packed, Feed the Hunger will deliver them to Grace Church’s partner congregation, the Light and Peace Mission in Trois Mares, Haiti, for the school children there. These meals will complete a year-round lunch program for students in Trois Mares and for another Haitian school as well.

Roseen explained, “The Light and Peace School is the only school in Trois Mares. Members and friends of Grace have been supporting the school for a few years, but enrollment has grown and our budget can only stretch to two lunches a week this year. Some students cannot count on any meals in a week but the lunches we provide at school. Sometimes kids miss school with hunger-related health issues. When that goes on too long, they are prone to trafficking. We cannot stand by and do nothing. That is why we are hosting this pack-a-thon.”

Volunteers will measure, bag, weigh, seal and box the meals during each two-hour shift. A brief instructional period begins each packing session.

The meals are formulated to provide enough nutrition to bring a child of any age, even a teenager, from starvation to health, even if this is the only meal the child eats each day. They cost only $0.27 each to produce and ship. New Directions International’s Feed the Hunger program distributes these meals to at-risk children overseas on an ongoing basis. 

This is not disaster relief. It addresses the ongoing crisis of hunger.

 
The Teaneck packages are destined for children in Haitian church schools whom members of Grace Lutheran Church, Christ Episcopal Church and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, all in Teaneck, have been visiting in recent years. Dr. Joyce Baynes, retired head of the math department of Teaneck Schools, and Kay Roseen co-chair this Pack-a-Thon.
 
“In addition to purchasing the food, we hope this pack-a-thon will provide enough funds to staff and refurbish a school in Chapottin, Haiti,” says Joyce Baynes. Christ Episcopal Church has particular interest in that community which has 178 children in school with only three underpaid teachers. “That is no way to educate children. If they are to grow up to be healthy and productive, they will need a safe place to learn and teachers committed to them. These children must learn to read and to acquire mathematics skills. We would be delighted if we raise the start-up money for the Chapottin school.”

The Haitian government requires children to attend school through the sixth grade but provides very few schools, especially in rural areas. Churches provide most of the schools in Haiti.

For more information or to reserve a packing time, please contact Kay Roseen at 201-907-0585 or via email at kay.roseen@me.com. Individuals or businesses interested in donating may donate online at championevents.donordrive.com/event/FHTPFH/ or may mail a check payable to Grace Lutheran Church, 1200 River Road, Teaneck.