We Did It – 100,008 Meals!

By Joy Arens and Linda Nerothin

April 15, 2012 … what an amazing day it was at Zion!

It all started in April of 2011 when Zion packaged 23,000 meals in partnership with Outreach International of Union, Iowa. That was a great day, but we thought we could do even better! Zion’s Harvest of Hands committee designated the majority of funds raised at the November 2011 Festival for a large packaging event. Additional money was raised through a Hog Roast in September and a Valentine sale. Zion’s Sunday School students raised over $2,500 during Lent through Change for Children.

At a Truckload of Life meeting, Pastor Ted started out private donations with a $100 donation. Dave Nerothin called lots of others and challenged them to do the same. An anonymous match of $2,500 was also received, and many donations were received at the event in a big wooden truck bank made by Lyle Jans.

On Saturday, Doug and Dave Schmidt met the semi with their forklift and brought all the food and packaging equipment into Trinity Hall. With the help of Bob from Outreach and many volunteers, the set-up took less than two hours.

Sunday was such an exciting day! The Sunday School packed at the 8:30 and 10:30 shifts. It was fun to see how excited the children were to help. Over 500 volunteers of all ages from Zion, other churches, Buffalo and surrounding communities filled another four shifts. Myron and Pastor Ted led a blessing of the packed boxes after each shift. Some people enjoyed packing so much that they wanted to keep going, and packing bags had to be rationed to save some work for the last shift! As tables finished up the final shift, the packers helped to break down the tables and clean up, allowing everything to be packed up by 5pm.

The total for the day was 100,008 meals packed at a cost of $25,002.

This load will go to Tanzania. In addition, 180 pounds of food were collected and delivered to the Buffalo Food Shelf.

The Harvest of Hands committee and the Zion staff wish to express our heartfelt thanks to the many volunteers who worked so hard and contributed time, money and food to make this event such a success. Volunteers learned that 50 children died of starvation in the time it took to watch the 3-1/2 minute training video. The Harvest of Hands committee feels called to share God’s love through feeding the hungry. We couldn’t have sent these meals without your help! May God bless you all as you have blessed others! Thank you!

Pictured:

Linda Nerothin, Joy Arens, Bob Dake (from Outreach), Holly Husom

See Zion’s Facebook page for more photos from this event.