family service project - hunger challenge

last year, matt took madelyn and mason to pack rice meals for haiti at our church. they had a wonderful time and have been asking when they could do it again. well, today was the day! this year i decided to sign up the whole family to serve together. this was just a little risky because it is a 2 hour shift and it is handling food. could manning handle it? yes! i got a little nervous during the orientation because he absolutely refused to put on his apron and cap and would not let go of me.

but once we got over to the tables for assembling the meals, he put on his safety wear and got to work. he finalized the amount of rice in each bag with me. i would tell him the numbers on the scale and whether the bag needed more or less and he did the scooping. he got a little crabby towards the end, but he was way better than matt and i had ever expected! our table made 360 bags which is 2,160 meals.

ready to go!

madelyn held bags while they were filled and then handed them to mason to put into the yellow baskets for the weighers.

maddux passed bags from the yellow baskets to me.

this is a picture i snapped of the big kids as we were leaving. 

i didn't get any pictures of manning and i because i just couldn't risk him doing something while i was taking pictures. so pleased for this service opportunity. a majority of the meals will go to ichmul, mexico where we are ministering to the mayan people with meals, shoes, school supplies, a bus, a medical unit/truck and a church structure. the kids love this because we talk a lot about vitamins and healthy foods and how they help them grow so they enjoy providing them for other kids.

the church works with heaven sent ministries to put this together. hsm brings in the logistics, supplies  and equipment and the church provides the volunteers. the meals we packed will be used in mexico and locally for food banks in ohio.

we are at the second table from the window (my back is to the camera in the grey sweater and manning is right in front of me with maddux to the left in bright green. matt is dark navy facing the camera at the right end of the table.

these pictures are a few from the event photos to show you the bulk of what we were doing - the group shot is only half the room with the same number of tables and volunteers outside the photo frame.

such a great way to start the weekend! we can't wait to do it again next year.