Kids Against Hunger

During the summer our church, Fellowship of Huntsville, replaces the Fall/Spring AWANA program with Xtreme Wednesday.

Xtreme Wednesday

Xtreme Wednesday is for Pre-K through 6th graders. The 2nd-6th graders begin with a recreation time, followed by praise and worship, and the evening wraps up with a lesson by our Children’s Minister.

Outside of the Wednesday night activities, the kids are challenged to work daily bible study lessons throughout the week; they complete and turn these in each Wednesday when they arrive at Xtreme Wednesday. The kids who finish their studies get to attend special reward trips (swimming, rollerskating, etc…).

They really do enjoy the summer program and at the same time, continue in their daily dose of God’s Word.

This summer Xtreme Wednesday has an additional focus – getting the kids involved in service projects that take them out into the community. Last month the kids visited a local assisted living facility to interview and play games with the residents.

This past Wednesday night Jeff and I caravanned with a few other parent volunteers to take the 2nd-6th graders, along with a few youth, to a KAH satellite location in The Woodlands; there we all were blessed to take part in the Kids Against Hunger project.

The week before the project, Monte, our children’s minister, showed the kids a video explaining the story, mission and purpose behind Kids Against Hunger, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide fully nutritious food to impoverished children around the world.

Meredith told us all about it on the drive home from church; she was excited there was actually something she could personally do to help feed malnourished children like the ones she saw in the video.

The kids were aware they would be filling, sealing, and boxing food packages; each package contains six servings. The Kids Against Hunger food packages are a specially formulated rice and soy mix, fortified with 21 essential vitamins and minerals and 6 dehydrated vegetables. The soy is 52% protein and said to be a “jump start” for severely malnourished children – it literally reverses the starvation process and its effects.

When we arrived at the KAH project, the kids were given aprons to tie on…

…and instructed to wash their hands and put on gloves and hair nets.

The kids listened as the local administrator explained the entire process before they set to work.

There truly was something for everyone to do; on occasion the kids would be instructed to scoot down two spots/jobs. The goal was to give each kid a chance to do several different jobs within the assembly line.

Kenny and his friend work to seal the food packages together. I love that this was a project even two first grade boys could get involved in doing; Kenny talked about it all night…it meant a lot to him that his work mattered.

Whether they were spooning out dried vegetables,

preparing the bags to fill,

or adding the powdered vitamins and minerals,

there was enough work for everyone.

Jeff and Monte, our Children’s Minister, kept up with the heavy lifting – keeping the rice and soy protein bins full.

Other volunteers assisted the kids as they needed it.

This lovely lady is Beth – she spearheads many of our mission projects; she has a heart the size of Texas and a conviction toward getting children involved in ministry.

Our church’s Vacation Bible School begins Monday and the kids attending VBS will get an opportunity to participate in preparing more of these food packages there.

EVERY MINUTE 10 CHILDREN DIE FROM STARVATION – Kids Against Hunger has spent the last 30 years combating starvation. While many feeding organizations feed the hungry through commercial or processed food, KAH has food proven to strengthen the immune system. The cost to prepare one bag is $1.38, that’s only $0.23 a serving.

If you’re interested in finding a KAH satellite site near you, check their website for more information.