Taking a bite out of hunger

For the third consecutive year, our church participated in a food-packing program to help people in this country and around the world to have better choices for meals.

At the Peoples United Methodist Church in South Portland, 11 members from our church joined 188 volunteers from other churches and organizations to pack ingredients for a rice and bean stew in vacuumed-sealed packets. In just over an hour, our group packed 2,500 meals. Overall, all groups, over a four-hour period, packed 27,000 meals.

Each packet included servings of freeze-dried vegetables, soy, rice. beans and a vitamin/spice package.

About half of the packets from Saturday will be shipped to Haiti. The other half will be distributed to food pantries and cupboards here in Maine.

In addition to our church, volunteers came from the Peoples UMC, Thornton Heights UMC, West Scarborough UMC, nurses from Mercy Hospital and a group from the South Portland Food Cupboard.

Thank you to all who participated and also to everyone who donated money to make this possible.