A good morning's work

It looks like we'll have 70 degrees for the first time this year. Out on the porch for lunch today, I can hardly imagine a more beautiful day. There is even a hint of lilac in the air.

Anne passes out hairnets for all of us.

Food tastes especially good to me after my morning experience at Feed My Starving Children. Together with about 50 students from the Minnesota Literacy Center and 10 teachers and volunteers, I spent the morning packing food for easy-to-prepare meals which will be sent to aid-relief organizations around the world for distribution to families. In just two hours, our group packed nearly 120 boxes of meals. The cost of the meal is just 17 cents to produce (although expected to go higher as the rice shortage becomes more severe) and has been designed to be easy and safe to transport, simple to make with only boiling water, and culturally acceptable worldwide.

Ali waits for everyone to get organized.

FMSC is located in an unremarkable office complex in the suburbs, but the facility is well-designed to get the job of food packing done quickly and economically. Each station is set up for 5 people: 2 people to hold the food pouch (taking turns), 1 to add a protein powder and dehydrated vegetables, 1 to add soy and rice, and 1 to seal the plastic and line them up to be boxed. Bags are weighed to be consistent (to hold down shipping costs) and spills on the table are swept right back into the rice bucket. We even did our own clean up at the end of the morning, washing utensils, tables and sweeping the floor so it was all ready for the next group.

Amah scoops up the rice.

We had a goal of 120 boxes for the morning..and just about met that goal (our bus was a little late). That was 4320 pouches of food that provided 25,920 meals or just about enough to feed 20 kids for a year.

Jorge tastes the meal after we're done.