GRAFTON — The cluster of Port Washington and Saukville parishes is hosting a Feed My Starving Children meal packaging event, Friday and Saturday, April 8 and 9.
On those two days, the parishes, St. Peter of Alcantara and St. Mary, Port Washington, and Immaculate Conception, Saukville, expect to have 600 volunteers packaging 100,000 meals that will cost $22,000, preparing them to be sent overseas to needy populations.
Members of St. Monica Parish, Whitefish Bay, package 20,000 meals for the people of Burkino Faso in West Africa, Saturday, March 5. More than 200 people volunteered for the packaging completed in two hours at the parish. Additionally, parishioners donated $10,000 to cover the cost of the food. The food will be distributed through the Helping Hands project of Catholic Relief Services. A smilier project will be undertaken by parishes in the Port Washington cluster April 8-9. (Catholic Herald photo by Peter Fenelon)
Organized through Feed My Starving Children, a Minnesota-based non-profit organization, this is the fourth time the parishes are hosting the effort. Since 2010, more than 700,000 meals have been packaged in Ozaukee County at Portal Industries, 1015 Cedar Creek, Grafton, also the site of the packaging this year.
The meal to be packaged is designed by food scientists and consists of rice, soy protein, 20 vitamins and minerals, dehydrated vegetables and vegetarian chicken flavor. Each meal costs 22 cents. In 2014, meals packaged by the Catholic cluster of parishes were shipped to Haiti; in 2012, meals went to Cambodia and in 2010, to Swaziland.
The meals are then cooked with boiling water at sites operated by Christian mission partners, orphanages, clinics and humanitarian relief centers.
Volunteers are needed to help with the packaging effort. Children as young as 5 are welcome to assist.
For information on volunteering, call Linda Gottlieb, (414) 688-6462, email linda.gottlieb@sbcglobal.net or visit fmsc.org.
Donations to cover the cost of the meals can be sent to: Feed My Starving Children, 1800 N. Wisconsin St., Port Washington, WI, 53074. Put 1604-67AU in the memo line of the check.
