Volunteers package 100,000 meals for children in the Dominican Republic
Dozens of volunteers that ranged in age from children to seniors, gathered in La Quinta Wednesday with one goal in mind, to package 100,000 thousands of meals for children in need around the world. The meals consist of dry chicken, rice, lentil, and spice.
“And they’re carefully weighed, there are scales at every table, where they’re working, 2 scales in fact, then they’re sealed and they’re boxed,” said Dennis Davis, Pastor at Friendship Church Sun City.
The church organized the effort, partnering with Children of the Nations, an organization that helps educate, support, and feed orphaned children around the world. This is the second year Friendship Church put the event together.
“We’re buying all the food today, so we’re supporting the project. They do the shipping, they have corporations that help to get this food to where it needs to go, so it’s a joint project,” said Pastor Davis.
This year, Family Hertiage Church in La Quinta also helped in the effort by providing their sanctuary as workspace. Volunteers began working at 9 in the morning and packaged the 100,000 meals for children in the Dominican Republic by 2:30 in the afternoon.
“Amazing, they did 50,000 meals in two hours in the first session,” said Sara Booth, Coordinator for Children of the Nation Orange County,”I’ve just never seen such heart and spirit. We put out chairs, they won’t sit down.”
And volunteers did it all while having smiles on their faces, knowing that children in other parts of the world will have a meal to eat, especially during the holidays.
“The energy of all of us is just amazing at our age that we can do all this so fast and for such a wonderful cause,” said Marolyn Chedester, a Friendship Church member.
“It’s one day but they showed up and their a child advocate now, they did something about it, they took action,” Booth said, “This food is going to go from these hands here to the childrens hands in a matter of a few months, that’s huge,” she said.
