a little FMSC ~ by Halo

Hi, it's Halo again for a rare but special report!

On Friday, my parents Sunday School group met at Feed My Starving Children. Let me tell you a little about this organization first. It is a christian organization but they invite believers and non-believers to partake in this ministry. A gal who works at FMSC told us the story of this eight year old boy named Omar. So what's the big deal about this kid Omar? Well, Omar was eight, right? So what's the average weight of an eight year old boy? About 60 pounds? If any of you have little boys around this age, you probably make sure that he's well fed before school each morning, and has lunch money or a lunch box packed full of good food for a young boy. At night, you more then likely feed him (and the rest of your family!) a good, nourishing supper. So what would you say if I told you that Omar was only 17 pounds?! Crazy, right? Well, it's true, Omar was only 17 pounds. You could see his rib cage, his eyes were sunken and hollow, his arms and legs were as skinny as toothpicks, and there was a sort of sadness about him. If you had seen these pictures, it would probably bring tears to your eyes. After 16 days of nourishing food from FMSC, he was already much improved!! After six months of their food, he was a very happy boy with an excellent weight of 73 pounds!

Most of the group helped pack "Manna Packs". There are four parts to these packs: chicken flavoring, dehydrated potatoes and carrots, soy protein, and rice. They told us that food scientists discovered the perfect combo to help malnourished children. FMSC is targeting children in between the ages of 4 to 8. Then we put the food packs into boxes. That night, 51 boxes were packed -- enough to feed 30 children for a whole year!! Amazing!! Surprisingly, the meals are totally cheap!! Each meal costs only 24 cents. To feed one child for a whole year only costs $90.00!!

(yes, we had to wear hairnets, even the men!)
This is a picture I got off fmsc.org, since I didn't take any pics, and I had to use something :)

I was at a table with a lot of kids: Timmy, Nate, Eli, Ray, and a girl named Kayla (who was not from our church) and Kayla's dad, and Mrs. Varberg, Nate's mom.

Six of the men/older boys, worked in the warehouse. As you can see in the picture, there are two plastic bins with rice and soy protein. When we ran out of rice or soy we would yell, "Rice please!" or "Soy please!" and they would run -- I mean RUN :) -- over and exchange our almost empty bin for a full one. Another job for the warehouse guys was moving the full boxes of food bags, after we packed them they would rush them away and tape them up, and stack them on pallets ... then make sure that we had fresh empty boxes sitting near by. Whew! What a mouthful ... and an evening full!! We had an awesome time and I would definitely donate some of my money to this organization -- and I certainly would go back!!

P.S. Some guys at my table were quite intense!! It was pretty funny!! One of the boys (I won't name who!) scooped rice, and like the first three times he poured it in he would pour it sooooo slllooowwwly, and say, "Look at that! Isn't it beeeuutifulll?" It was really funny. Another one of the guys, (I won't name who again, you just have to guess!) was so intense, this is what he said, "C'mon you guys, chicken. Now veggies, soy, it's your turn, rice, keep it going there!!" It was totally hilarious!!

Thanks everyone -- it was super fun!!