Guest Post by Mission of Hope, Haiti

A good partnership fits like a hand in a leather glove. Mission of Hope Haiti and Food Aid International have been blessed with such a relationship.

For almost a year, Food Aid International has worked with Mission of Hope to package over 1 million meals for hungry children in Haiti. These meals are an answered prayer for thousands of mothers that struggle to provide food daily for their children. Not only does our partnership provide malnutrition-fighting meals to Haitian families and orphans living in poverty, it allows our partner churches in the US to join the fight against hunger and physically serve together to provide food for people that they are praying for and supporting. It is a beautiful picture of God’s church at work caring for the needs of others and fulfilling the commands of Jesus.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:40

Dr. Chris Leader has been generous in his relationship with Mission Of Hope in providing valuable resources above and beyond meal packing. At food packing events and music festivals, Food Aid features fair trade merchandise, including beautiful handmade purses, clutches and head wraps sewn by Haitian men and women who are amputees or the parent of an amputee due to the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010. Food Aid also supports the Mission of Hope Child Sponsorship Program by making information cards for children who are in need of sponsorship available at events. Child sponsorship helps provide education and daily nutrition for the children in our orphanages.

A unique benefit of the partnership between Mission of Hope and Food Aid is the ability for teams traveling to Mission of Hope to purchase water filters from Food Aid for families in Haiti. These filters are then gifted to Haitian families; it is a beautiful sight to behold when a family knows they have safe drinking water! Together, Mission of Hope and Food Aid International are working to meet the nutritional and spiritual needs of the children in Haiti. This is certainly a partnership with an eternal perspective and one that Mission of Hope is so thankful for as we strive to bring life transformation to every man, woman and child in Haiti!

On April 25th, Nepal was hit with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Just a mere 17 days later, people flooded the streets with shock and fear as yet another earthquake, this time at 7.4 Magnitude, struck the nation.

The results of these disasters are shocking, tragic and heartbreaking. The death toll has risen beyond 8,200 and over 17,000 people have been injured. The nation has received aid from around the world and close to 1 Million people have been provided with food assistance. But the need for help is still immense.

8.1 million people.

8.1 million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, and have yet to receive it.  8.1 million people are on the streets, searching for water to drink. 8.1 million people are hungry, simply desperate for a meal.

8.1 million people are in need of immediate help and relief.

When people are in need, and we can afford to help, how can we turn a blind eye to such tragedy and devastation?

Food Aid International has launched a new campaign – #Food4Nepal – specifically to provide humanitarian food relief for the earthquake victims. Through global partnerships and fundraising efforts, Food Aid has joined relief efforts to help meet the needs of the hungry people throughout the nation of Nepal. Aid is being provided for the country, but not nearly enough. Food Aid seeks to mobilize the masses and to empower you, to help those affected and to have an impact around the world.

How can you get involved? Well, there are three easy ways!

Partner through Donating
This is the most immediate way to provide relief. Every penny counts – or better yet, every quarter counts. It costs us just 25 cents to fund, package, and ship a meal overseas, and these meals aren’t just any meal. They offer all nine of the essential amino acids required for complete nutrition – something that can’t be said about other typical food-relief sources. Donations of any size are greatly appreciated and will help change the lives of those in need. Click here to donate to the #Food4Nepal Project.

Are you part of a community, organization, church, or business? This is a great opportunity for you and your family, friends, and colleagues! Once your organization decides to host an event, set a meal goal, an event date and determine what funds need to be raised – each meal costs just 25 cents.  Begin promoting our packaging event immediately and recruiting volunteers to help pack. That’s it – we’ll handle the rest! We will supply all ingredients and packing supplies the day of the event! Once the meals are packed, we will ship them to Nepal, where they will fill the stomachs of hungry people. Emailshoward@food-aid.org for more details on food-packaging events.

Partner through Sharing
Everyone can help, and chances are we all have friends and family that would love to provide relief for the Nepalese victims. We challenge you to make the#Food4Nepal graphic (seen above) your Facebook profile picture, and include a link to food-aid.org in the caption. Once you do so, tag three friends, and challenge them to do the same! Using social media, word of mouth, and any other forms of communication to help raise awareness will greatly benefit these efforts.

8.1 million people in Nepal are in need of humanitarian aid right now. What will you do to be part of the relief efforts?  Thank you for your partnership in helping us provide #Food4Nepal and joining the fight against hunger across the globe.

 Reaganne Coile, a junior at North Oconee High School near Athens, GA joins us today to share her experience fundraising and planning the 2^nd annual NOHS Rally Against Hunger. The NOHS FFA Chapter partners each year with Food Aid International to package meals and bring Hope to the Hungry in Georgia, and around the world.

Ronald Reagan said “We cannot help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” This is the exact purpose behind the NOHS Rally Against Hunger. We were three girls from Athens, Georgia who were passionate about fighting food insecurity both globally and in our community, but over the past two years, we (our community) have raised over $13,000 and packaged over 55,000 meals. If everyone did his or her part, global and local hunger could be almost, if not completely, conquered.

After learning that Georgia had the second highest food insecurity rates in the country, and participating in a Kids Against Hunger packaging event at the 2012 National FFA Convention, Senior Colleen Weynand, Junior Jacqueline Elder, and myself as a sophomore suggested to our advisor and officer team that we hold a similar event in our community. After doing our research, we found out that 103 kids in Oconee County-OUR Oconee County, seemingly the “wealthiest” county in Georgia, had no access to food afterschool, on the weekends, nor over the summer. After learning this, we were fully determined to make a food packaging event happen. After months and months of unsuccessfully trying to contact a similar humanitarian food-packaging organization, we spoke with a man at the Kids Against Hunger booth at the 2013 National Convention who gave us the contact information of Dr. Chris Leader, who was more than willing to help us reach our goals. We began fundraising and rallying volunteers, and on Saturday, March 14^th, 2014 we successfully held the first annual NOHS Rally Against Hunger through which $6,250 provided for 25,000 meals to be distributed in the Athens area.

After the success of the event and the effect it had on our community, we wanted to make our 2015 event even more impactful by adding an educational component. Two of our officers had attended the Washington Leadership Conference through FFA, and experienced a hunger simulation dinner. The purpose of such a dinner is to simulate the classes of the world by separating participants into three socioeconomic groups based on world statistics, and serving each class a different meal and providing a different experience. Participants of the NOHS hunger simulation dinner on Friday, March 6^th, 2015 said things such as, “I had no idea how many people were food insecure around me,” and, “I never thought an hour in a gym on Friday night captivated by high school students would be so impactful on me, I’m going to start planning my event as soon as I get home!” Many of the participants of the dinner returned the following day, met by over 300 more volunteers, to package over 31,000 meals funded by over $7,500 worth of donations from corporate sponsors and local partners. Plans are in the work now, two weeks after the 2015 event, for the 2016 event.

Although only a 17-year-old girl from Athens, GA, if I could give advice to anyone, I would say that while coordinating an event like this is time-consuming, the impact on the community and filling empty bellies with nutritious meals is worth your time – more worth your time than many things you might pursue. As laid out by Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth, it is our responsibility as more fortunate people to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves – this includes those who are food insecure. I would also tell someone, of any age or occupation, that you are going to run into dead ends. There are tons of people who cannot find it in their heart to give up the least amount of money, people who cannot give up a Friday night or get up early on a Saturday morning, and people who ask ignorant questions like, “A hunger simulation dinner? Like we pay $15 to come to a gym and not eat?” You CANNOT let these people tear your spirit down or stray you from your purpose. This year, we called over 300 businesses and around 30 or 40 supported our event. Keep pushing, keep contacting, and you will eventually find plenty of people who are willing to help you feed the community you all share. After we had lost sleep for months over funds, we ended up exceeding our goal by over $2,000. Donate your time, persevere when it looks like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, and do not be afraid to ask for help.