The United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay, in conjunction with the Feed My Starving Children hunger relief organization, is sponsoring a food packing event to combat world hunger. 

The event will take place on April 4-6 at Portal Industries, 1015 Cedar Creek Road in Grafton, Wisconsin. The food will be packed in eight two-hour shifts over the course of the three days. The goal is to recruit 750 volunteers and to pack 150,000 meals. All are welcome to participate, regardless of church affiliation.  Pre-registration is required and a $10 donation is requested.  Additional donations are also welcome. 

Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit organization whose mission is to feed starving children throughout the world. For 25 years, FMSC has been providing meals to nearly 70 countries where children suffer from hunger. FMSC works through partnerships with non-profit global distributors to send the meals to refugee centers, schools, clinics and orphanages.  

The ingredients of the meals were developed by food scientists especially for malnourished children and consist of a combination of rice, soy, vegetables, chicken flavoring and a mix of 20 vitamins and minerals. The meals are culturally accepted world-wide and are simple to prepare. 

All of the meals are packed by volunteers at packing events like the one in Grafton. Last year FMSC volunteers across the country packed over 34 million meals.  Volunteers are also required to raise the funds necessary to purchase the ingredients for the meals.  At $.22 a meal, 150,000 meals cost $33,000. Ninety-two percent of all donations to FMSC go directly to its mission. 

“Hunger, malnutrition and starvation have reached epidemic proportions in much of the world, particularly in countries ravaged by poverty, war and natural disaster," said Dr. Susan Patterson- Sumwalt, pastor of the United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay.  "The effect of hunger is most devastating on the children, who are the weakest and most vulnerable victims of the crises in their countries.

"This is borne out by the statistics. One in seven children in the world suffers from hunger and half of all the deaths of children around the world – about 5 million each year - are linked to hunger and malnutrition.  Ten children die of starvation every 15 minutes. 

"Our church wanted to do something to help these children and we wanted to offer the opportunity to the community as well.” 

Registration for one of the eight packing sessions on April 4-6 and donations to the event can be made online at the Missions-FMSC page at the church website - www.umcwfb.org - or by contacting the church office at (414) 964-2424.  You can also register and donate through the church’s  MobilePack event site on the Feed My Starving Children website at www.fmsc.org.