Packing meals for disaster relief

By Editor | November 13, 2024 |

Photo by Shari Harris
This group of volunteers packed 25,000 meals Saturday morning at Licking Christian Church for those in need.

By Shari Harris, Publisher

Licking Christian Church hosted a mission event Saturday morning in their gymnasium, packing meals for International Disaster Emergency Services (IDES). IDES assists with disasters in many countries, including the United States. Sherri Lane helped to organize the mission event for Licking Christian Church.

IDES volunteers Chad and Tammy Green, of Wentzville, were on hand to organize local volunteers into meal packing teams. The church purchased enough food to pack 25,000 meals, and in three hours, they accomplished their goal.

First, packets of vitamins were added to the empty food packages. Then the packages moved on to one of five stations, where scoops of rice, soy and dried vegetables were added. The next stations weighed the packages and added rice as needed to make the weight exact. Then the packages were sealed and added to boxes. Each package contained six meals, and each box held 48 packages.

A final table was set up to tape boxes closed, then they were placed on pallets for delivery. Volunteers even wrapped the pallets of boxes after they were complete, making them ready for pickup.

Volunteers gave three hours of their time and earned the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of their labor, completing three pallets of meals to send to those in need. This particular shipment of meals was slated to go to missionaries in Ghana.