Meals from the Heartland

**Update: We had a great time yesterday. People were split up into teams of 10 per table - one each for scooping rice, dried veggies, soy powder, placing a vitamin tablet, and holding the bag under the funnel - then two for weighing, two for sealing the bags, and one to box them up. Kaylen did the vitamin tablet the whole time. She wanted to trade, but I don't think she could have reached over the tubs to scoop other things into the funnel. I worked some bagging, a little bit with the veggie scoop and a bit with the soy scoop. Erin worked on the measuring. We filled 360 packages - 10 boxes of 36 packages each. Here are a few pictures...

When we got there, one of the organizers of this event told us that, with two packaging days to go, they'd already packaged the 3 million meals they'd hoped to do. Friday night, they trucked in another semi-full or two of ingredients, so they could keep all their packaging volunteers busy on Saturday and Sunday - to make a total of 4 million! That's just awesome! We also got a tiny spoonful to taste what we'd helped package on our way out - tastes pretty bland, but very good - almost like chicken-flavored rice. We bought a packet for a $5 donation - so we'll add a little salt and try it at home. We may head over to an auto dealership some other Saturdays when we're not busy and package meals again - next time we'll bring Daddy with us. :) They host packaging volunteers each Saturday from 10 am - 12 pm - check it out here.

Kaylen and I, and my friend Erin, are going tomorrow to downtown Des Moines, to HyVee Hall, to help package food for this event. The food packaging time slots are all filled (Awesome!!!), but they're still accepting volunteers for other positions. They are also still taking donations. Check out their website to see how you can help.

When I mentioned this to Kaylen yesterday she was very excited about it. We're planning to watch the promotional clips tonight and then the training video online, so she knows what to expect - and I think they'll show us the training video when we get there before we start working too. I told her it wasn't going to be fun, but hard work - however, we should feel good that we're helping people who are in need. It didn't matter to her that it was going to be hard work - she was still excited about it. I told her generically that the meals we're helping to prepare are going to help people who don't have enough food to eat. She immediately asked, excitedly if it would go to children in Haiti and China. I'm not sure about China, but Haiti was on the list, along with many other places. She's got such a heart of gold! She's always wanting to help others. I'm so proud of her.