Help Combat Hunger Worldwide with FMSC
Over 6,200 children die every day from hunger related causes in this world. The number is staggering considering there is plenty of food. Sadly, there are places in the world where it’s hard to get food to the mouths that need it. That’s where the nonprofit Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) comes in. It has developed an innovative system to combat that sad statistic to make sure every child has at least one meal every day. You can help–and in helping FMSC, you also help yourself!
We don’t have a food supply problem, we have a food distribution problem.
Carrie Wiggins, development advisor for FMSC MobilePack™
Feed My Starving Children is a Christian nonprofit dedicated to providing nutritious meals to children worldwide. FMSC meals are hand-packed by volunteers and sent to a network of partner organizations that distribute the meals to those in need in over 70 countries.
The partner organizations, often NGOs (non-governmental organizations in foreign countries) make sure the packed meals get to schools, hospitals, orphanages, community feeding programs, sports programs and others who need it the most. They assume all shipping and distribution costs and make sure shipments packed in the U.S.A. get through foreign customs and to their intended targets.
Carrie Wiggins, development advisor for FMSC MobilePack™, a department of FMSC that coordinates food packing events at non-FMSC locations, said, “We don’t have a food supply problem, we have a food distribution problem.”
How They Do It
In the U.S., 1.3 million volunteers packed nearly 365 million FMSC meals in 2018. Wiggins said volunteers can be from as young as five years old and people of all abilities are welcome to help. There are three packing centers for the organization in the Chicagoland area, with the Aurora location being the closest to Glen Ellyn. But through FMSC MobilePack events, the packing party can also come to local churches, schools, corporations and more so everyone can get into the action of packing a nutritious meal.
Each meal includes vitamin powder, veggies, soy and rice – just four ingredients that when added to six cups of water become six 1-cup servings with 210 calories each. It’s enough to make a huge difference in the life of a child at a cost of only .24 cents per meal.
Making a Difference, One Little Person at a Time
As an example, Lauza, a little girl in Uganda, was a lethargic, sick undernourished two-year old with a bleak future. She weighed 13 pounds. Three years later, with one meal a day provided by FMSC’s food partner African Children Today, Lauza behaved like any normal five-year old. She giggles and laughs with her friends and has become one of the best students in her class at school.
The cost to feed Lauza for one year through FMSC is $88.
How It All Started
Feed My Starving Children was founded in 1987 by Minnesota businessman Richard Proudfit after being challenged by the needs he saw during a visit to Honduras. In 1994, Green Giant donated 1 million plastic bags, which kick-started the development of an efficient and productive meal-packing model that has proven to be effective to this day. In 2004, the first FMSC MobilePack event was created for a school in Kansas City, Mo., and proved to be a big hit. FMSC has been hosting and supporting MobilePack events ever since.
The organization has since expanded into other areas to provide relief and support for people in under developed countries. They work with artisans to sell jewelry, provide consultants and other support to help with farming and crop development, and they are working with governments to eliminate hunger in dozens of countries.
FMSC has a goal to pack and ship 370 million meals in 2019. But that’s not enough to meet demand. The organization’s partners are asking for 70 million more meals. FMSC will only be able to meet this challenge with increased support from volunteers and donors.
The organization is planning a gala on Saturday, May 2, 2020, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Illinois, in addition to on-going MobilePack events that are planned week in and week out across the country. Volunteers can also help out at any one of the three packing sites in the Chicagoland area on a daily basis. Find out more at fmsc.org/volunteer.
Lean and Efficient
The organization runs lean and efficient. Wiggins said, more than 91 percent of total financial donations go directly to feed kids and 99.8% of meals shipped have safely reached intended destinations. She added on occasion, meals are sent to the U.S. and its territories when needed, usually because of a natural disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when meals were shipped to New Orleans and in 2017’s Hurricane Maria when meals were shipped to Puerto Rico.
Wiggins said she’d welcome any calls to volunteer. “It’s the most fun you’ll ever have in a hairnet, I promise,” she said. And of course, donations can always be made at fmsc.org.
To volunteer or organize a packing event for your school, business or place of worship, regardless of denomination, contact Carrie Wiggins at cwiggins@fmsc.org or 765.427.8920. To learn more visit fmsc.org.
