DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) - Helping feed starving children around the world, hundreds of community members are taking part in "Feed My Starving Children" meal packing.
The event is taking place at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Decatur.
"When we come here, we are doing one thing and that's serve those children that need this the most," said Blake Wells, head of strategy for sustainable materials at ADM.
Over the course of two days, tens of thousands of meals will be packed by volunteers.
"Local businesses, organizations, school groups, church groups, whole families coming. Kids as old as five years old can come and pack and be part of something bigger," said Andrea Gerhard, volunteer event coordinator.
For 12 years, the community has been putting together dozens of manupack meals made with vegetables, vitamins, soy and rice.
The soy in the packs is grown and processed in Central Illinois.
"Connecting with that farmer, they are growing the soy that then gets processed into the protein, and that protein gets packed," Wells said.
"It's going to feed somebody in another part of the world. That is a way for us to have a connection across the globe," Gerhard said.
Wells told WAND News he has seen firsthand what it means to put the meals together.
"They asked me to help unload a trunk. The truck doors opened, and there were some feed my starving children boxes sitting right there on the truck, and the kids just flocked, and it really just connected the dots for me that this is why we do what we do," Wells said.
While the meal pack program helps kids around the world, Gerhard said, it also highlights the need in the community.
"This just really gets this on people's minds that we have to care for each other. We have to do something greater, and we can do that here in the Decatur community through things like this and through the food drive and make a huge impact on people's lives," Gerhard said.
The group will continue packing meals Saturday morning. They are hoping to put together around 248,000 meals this year.
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