In keeping with its mission to make sure every orphan receives at least one nutritious meal per day, Food for Orphans is launching an ambitious new food-packing project this summer. 

According to information released by the organization: “Our goal is to provide 500,000 nutritious meals to hungry orphan children through the program this year. We need help from philanthropically-minded corporations to be successful.”   

Here’s how it works 

Food for Orphans provides companies with a fun, team-building, morale-boosting, life-changing event for its employees. 

The Colorado-based nonprofit provides the food, materials, equipment, know-how, training and supervision, as well as media alerts and other marketing collateral. Companies provide volunteers as well as financial support to cover costs. 

Food comes in large containers of rice, soy, vitamin packs and flavoring, which is scientifically formulated to combat the effects of malnutrition.  Volunteers work on tables to measure, mix, scoop, seal, weigh and pack the mix into containers. Soon, the packets of easy to make, life-saving food will be on its way to hungry orphans in destinations across the globe. 

Volunteers are encouraged to include handwritten notes or pictures among the shipment, which is always exciting for the children to receive. 

Food-packing events are one way Food for Orphans has found to mobilize the community around the important cause of feeding hungry orphan children in some of the more impoverished villages in the world. 

It’s a fun way for a small group of people to make a huge contribution to combating hunger. It’s a simple concept and it’s definitely a win-win. Volunteers have a great time and come away with a true sense of accomplishment. Employers love it because it builds camaraderie among workers. And, most importantly, of course, hundreds of poor kids go to bed with full bellies as a result. 

What could 100 volunteers accomplish in two hours?  

Typically, a group of 100 volunteers can pack over 21,000 meals during a single 2-hour event. That’s enough to ensure a nutritious, potentially life-saving meal for every child in an average-sized orphanage (40 children) for nearly two years. 

Food for Orphans asks for a monetary gift of $10,000 from the corporation to cover costs (food, shipping, etc.). 

The numbers may seem overwhelming 

•          There are over 150 million orphans worldwide

•          44,000 new orphans every day

•          Every 90 seconds another orphan starves to death

•          60 million orphans go to bed hungry every night 

The good news 

Although the issues contributing to poverty, hunger and orphaned children may seem overwhelming and intractable, solutions do exist.  

Last year alone, Food for Orphans provided 600,000 nutritious meals to hungry orphan children throughout the world. It hopes to double that number this year.

The Food for Orphans food-packing corporate event is a fun, pragmatic way for a group to truly make an immediate difference in the world.

About Food for Orphans       

Food for Orphans is a 501(c)3 charitable organization which has been successfully feeding hungry orphan children for the past ten years. 

Well-trained and experienced staff at Food for Orphans visit orphanages, build relationships with children and caregivers and local officials, assess needs of orphans, and train the orphan caregivers on diet and nutrition. 

Food for Orphans is very active and involved in the orphanages it supports, keeps close tabs on its donations and only supports reputable orphanages who are trying their best to tend to the needs of the children in their care, yet struggle to provide food for them. The organization requires financial accountability, monthly reports, updates on the condition of the orphans, and unlimited access to the facility.

Food for Orphans provides food for children who truly need help, mostly in orphanages in the poorest third-world countries; currently in Asia, Africa, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Certainly, there are hungry children who need our help right here in the US. 

But, the level of poverty in some of these third-world countries is unimaginable to most of us. Orphan children, already with so many odds stacked against them, are the poorest of the poor, certainly “the least among us.” 

For them, we may be their only safety net. For them, a shipment of food from Food for Orphans may be the difference between life and death. 

Anyone interested in learning more about the Food Packing program should send an emal to: [email protected] or call (919) 381-7229.

http://www.foodfororphans.org