Day 52 - Volunteer.

One thing that I have always loved and always felt was my reason for being is helping others so I was looking forward to today's deed.  I registered with my church over a month ago to volunteer with today's organization, Feeding my Starving Children, but I did not know the impact that this particular organization would have on me. This Christian non-profit organization is committed to feeding God's children and their approach is quite simple; children and adults like me, hand-pack meals specifically formulated for malnourished children, and they ship the meals to nearly 70 countries around the world.

USA Today recently had an article stating that the head of the U.N. Food Agency reported that 18,000 children die every single day because of hunger and malnutrition and 850 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs.

In 1982, a businessman from Minnesota by the name of Richard Proudfit started completing missions with his church mainly in Honduras; upon completing these missions he saw the simple needs of children who just wanted a bite of food and heard God say "if you've seen my starving children, feed them". In early 1987 he incorporated Feed My Starving Children to develop an original meal formula. Cargill food scientist Dr. Richard Fulmer teamed up with colleagues from Pillsbury and General Mills to develop a nutritious "Fortified Rice Soy Casserole" for malnourished children also known as MannaPack Rice.

This meal consists of four main ingredients; rice which is the most widely accepted grain around the world), extruded soy nuggets which provide maximum protein at lowest cost, vitamins and minerals with a vegetarian flavoring to give growing children the critical nutritional elements they need and dehydrated vegetables for flavor and nutrition. The pack is simple and for the abundance of food that we are used to in the states, it seemed small to me; what shocked me the most is that each of these small MannaPack's feeds 6 children. In the two hours that I helped out, our crew packed 976 boxes which contained 202,394 meals for starving children all around the world, their goal is 1 million. As our announcer was advising us the amount of boxes we packed they got note that the boxes from the previous day had arrived in Nicaragua.

I know that our daily schedules are usually jam packed, but I also know from experience that there is no better feeling in the world than to help out a complete stranger in need. No matter how you give back, the feeling you get knowing you've made a difference in someone's life is priceless. Take a few minutes to step out of your routine and help change the lives of others and make a difference in our local communities, and if you're still not convinced click here to see reasons why you should volunteer that may benefit you. Ask your friends, families and coworkers to join you in volunteering.

I would like to say thank you for those already out in the community and encourage everyone to keep up the good work and enjoy every minute of it. Helping others and giving back to your community can change your life.

And if you haven't yet, become a volunteer!♥