Feeding Children Everywhere (FCE) is a charity organization that helps to bring the most basic need to people throughout the world . . . food.
FCE now wants Saint Leo University (SLU) to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to help in this noble mission.Kile Riggs, Event Coordinator and one of the starting members of FCE, stated “It started with four people sitting at a table with their laptops.” Since then, FCE has expanded vastly among the list of charities that search for aid to those in need. FCE makes their unique mark though, by offering nutritious meals and getting communities active and involved by having volunteers pack the food themselves. The meal consists of lentils, rice, dehydrated vegetables which includes bell peppers, onions, carrots, celery, and pink Himalayan salt. The meal is simple to put together, yet it provides a plethora of health benefits: protein, Vitamins A, B6, C, D, and E, amino acids, iron, calcium, zinc, carbohydrates, folic acid, and magnesium. All these health benefits and all that is needed to cook the meal is boiling water. It seems that to bring all these nutrients together, plus shipping, would be costly, but truthfully, 25 cents is enough to give someone one meal. Imagine! When was the last time one can remember eating a healthy, filling meal for just a quarter? One can feed their average family of four for one dollar! These meals are ship to village and towns in many different countries in giant semi-truck size metal containers. The metal containers are then giving to that village or town to use for housing or whatever suits their community’s needs. Riggs explained, “One of the tribes we donated to use the metal container as a library.” The meals are also shipped to local communities such as Florida’s very own Largo community.
If the meal was not unique enough to add the charity of FCE on an interest list, then their volunteer movements certainly will turn a few heads in the FCE direction. One can donate time, and become a volunteer at one of the many packing events FCE hosts every year. FCE provides tables, funnels, food, shower caps, and plastic gloves; all they need is a location and volunteers. The meal packing events consist of gathering volunteers into groups, forming lines at tables, and having those groups work together in “factory line” to distribute, mixed, and pack the meals together to help filled a shipping container bound to hungry families. Thousands of meals are packed within hours, and then the meals are put directly on the roads to their destination. So, how may someone become a volunteer? There are multiple ways for one to volunteer, from started a new meal packing event for their community, or one can join one of the many events already registered. However, SLU is offering their own meal packing event at the SLU campus. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, this up-coming spring in 2013, for SLU Community Service Day FCE will be having a meal packing event on campus! Community Service Day is a time to bring the community together. What better way to do so, then by helping to fill bellies and put smiles on faces for a hungry community? Put it on the calendar, and do not forget to come out to Community Service Day.
For those that cannot wait, and would like to get involved or donate today, please visit their website at feedingchildreneverwhere.com. Through the website, one can even order their very own FCE meal to try!
