Feed My Starving Children Brings More Than 600 Volunteers To Bagley

Volunteers from all over the Lakeland viewing area were in Bagley today to help “Feed My Starving Children.” Because of the packaging event, hundred of kids from 70 different countries around the world will not go hungry.

“This year we’re packaging 24,000 more meals. Last year was 124,000, this year it’s 148,000,” says Michael Davis, a volunteer and the site host for the event.

“Feed My Starving Children” is a Christian non-profit that’s committed to feeding children who suffer from malnutrition. This is the 2^nd year in a row the mobile team has made a stop in Bagley. This year, there seven volunteers sessions hosted over the course of two days. Each session had anywhere between 170 and 200 volunteers.

“Today these two shifts are mostly schools and teachers. Northome, Cass Lake, Fertile, just about a 60-mile radius around Bagley are people coming to help out,” says Davis.

Each volunteer was given a job, which was a part of an even bigger system to package as much as possible in two hours.

“We start off the session with an orientation so people can acclimated to the rules of what’s going on. Then we’ll break up into a few groups – labeling and making sure that all of the bags are ready to go. A warehouse crew to support all the packing stations and then at each of the different packing stations we’ll combine four main ingredients: vitamins, veggies, soy and rice,” says Michael Chalmers, volunteer program facilitator for Feed My Starving Children.

The event will see around 600 volunteers from all over the state, and in the session Lakeland News featured, there were exactly 176. Those volunteers packed more than 170 boxes, which is equal to more than 37,000 meals. That means 102 kids be fed for the whole year all because of this one group.

“When you think about 6,000 kids that die every day, and here we’re doing this, I’m just so thankful we’re doing it,” says Davis.

For the folks who picked up the ladles today, many say getting the chance to help those less fortunate is what makes the experience worthwhile.

Volunteer Rebecca says, “I just think it’s a really amazing thing because it’s something that I get to do for a good couple of hours of my life, and though it’s a once-a-year type thing, it’s still something I get to do. It’s something that I know I’m doing to help.”

All sessions combined, this one event in Bagley will give more than 400 kids meals for an entire year. Organizers say they hope they can reach even more people next year.

“People just need to say: you know what? We’re going to feed the starving people. We need to get involved,” says Davis.

“If everyone took a part in it, there’s a lot we could do to change because even one person could change the world says,” says Rebecca.

Feed My Starving Children will be back in Bagley exactly one year from now on May 16^th and 17^th, 2019.