Weighing in at 13.8 ounces, one bag does not seem like much.
A Kids Against Hunger meal, however, means a lot to each recipient as it provides a hearty, nourishing meal for six adults, double that for children.
The bag contains a mix of rice, soy, chicken and vegetables, which when boiled with six cups of water make a chicken casserole that includes 21 vitamins and minerals. When volunteers band together and assemble Kids Against Hunger meals in a blitz, leveraging the power of many, one bag turns into thousands of bags. Twenty thousand, to be exact, thanks to the efforts Saturday by about 50 volunteers from area Kiwanis Clubs.
Gathering in the morning at Traverse City Central High School's cafeteria, the kids and adults worked methodically to fill, seal, package and load the meals, 25 percent of which were donated to food pantries in the community.
Signed up to help were members of area adult Kiwanis Clubs as well as students from the St. Francis and Central High School Key Clubs, members of the Builders Club from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School and Pathfinder and K-Kids Club volunteers from Cherry Knoll and Immaculate Conception elementary schools.
This is the second year that local Kiwanians have hosted a Kid Against Hunger work bee; last year volunteers packaged 10,000 meals. This year the eight assembly lines, two more than in 2006, used up all the ingredients brought within two hours, half the estimated time for the project.
For the volunteers involved, the work provides a direct link to helping someone in need. This year a $2,000 grant to the hosting Central High School Key Club from the Kiwanis Youth Opportunities Fund, one of only three grants given in Michigan, defrayed costs of the project.
"For 100 people to do this in just a few hours is just incredible,” said Katie Krueger, a senior at Central and the Key Club president. "It's really nice to know that some of it stays local so it's staying in our community.”
The sealed boxes containing the meals not staying locally were loaded into the trailer of Dr. Don Burwell, executive director for the state of Michigan's Kids Against Hunger. Burwell, who is based at the organization's state headquarters in Oak Park, noted that these meals will make their way overseas.
Kids Against Hunger has shipped meals to 40 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, since its founding by entrepreneur Richard Proudfit. The program also supplied more than a million meals to the Gulf Coast in response to Hurricane Katrina.
"Our motto is when you feed the child you feed the future,” said Burwell, who has been involved with the organization for nine years. "I look forward to the day when someone says, 'Hey, doc, we're making a difference.'”
Noting that volunteers in Michigan have packaged more than one million meals over the past three years, Burwell shared the ambitious vision he helped create for the state. Tapping into youth energy and enthusiasm, this includes the goal that by 2016 all 585 school districts in the state will help Kids Against Hunger at least once a year.
"Then we're going to ask the nation to follow the Michigan model,” he said of the organization, which is based in Minnesota and has satellites around the United States and Canada. "The kids in the state of Michigan are making a difference.”
The support of the Kiwanis Clubs statewide has also been invaluable, Burwell said, a connection that has boosted the program's profile and volunteer base tremendously.
"It's so important because we're packaging a million meals a year but 40,000 children starve to death every 24 hours,” added Burwell.
Turning to economically challenged Michigan, Burwell noted that Kids Against Hunger efforts are crucial here as well.
"Already this year we have given to the state 300,000 over commitment and they still have a demand over what we can give them,” he said. "The demand has increased exponentially due to automotive layoffs.”
For more information on Kids Against Hunger, see their web site at www.kidsagainsthungermi.org.