More than 400 Volunteers Package 140,000 Meals

— 3/6/2013

  They gathered from across the region: Steele, Devils Lake, Medina, Marion, Jamestown, waking with the dawn and in some cases, driving an hour to arrive for the 9 a.m. shift. Dozens made the early-morning sacrifice that Saturday, March 2. And of them, many hardly meet the age-requirement to operate a car.

After surpassing its goal and raising $30,000, Jamestown Kiwanis and about 400 volunteers packaged 140,000 meals to feed starving people locally and abroad. They did it as part of Jamestown’s third Kids Against Hunger project. Compared to prior meal-packaging events, organizers said many of volunteers consisted of the area’s youth.

“We helped out because these kids are in need and we wanted to do what we could for them,” said Katrina Wiest, who helps coach the Jamestown High School Girls Hockey team. She and about a dozen student athletes and their friends helped with Kids Against Hunger set up.

Kids Against Hunger is a humanitarian food-aid organization that seeks to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the USA and to feed starving children throughout the world. Meal recipients need only to add water and boil the dried ingredients for 20 minutes. Meals are distributed internationally as well as locally.

A child dies from hunger-related causes every six seconds, but to feed them requires so little. Each Kids Against Hunger meal serving costs 23 cents.

Kiwanis, an organization dedicated to improving quality of life for children and communities, originally hoped to match a $10,000 donation from an anonymous giver. Thanks to the generosity of a second anonymous donor, Kiwanis received another $10,000 gift. Jamestown and the surrounding communities also raised $10,000, generating $30,000 total.

At its prior events, Jamestown raised $23,000 for Kids Against Hunger in April 2011, packaging 100,000 meals. It again raised $25,000 in October 2011, matching a $25,000 gift from the anonymous donor.

The Kiwanis Club of Jamestown is a service organization dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time. The group meets Mondays at Noon at the Depot’s Lantern Room. In addition to Kids Against Hunger, the club serves the community in a variety of ways including Meals on Wheels, Camp Rokiwan, and a variety of other projects.

For more information about Jamestown’s Kiwanis Club, visit www.Facebook.com/JamestownKiwanis, email JamestownKiwanis@gmail.com, or call 701-253-5109.

Contact: Janna Bergstedt
Telephone: 253-5109
janna.bergstedt@myfccu.com