Local church prepares packages to feed the hungry

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By HILARY KINDSCHUH / Lincoln Journal Star

When Dee Dee Neil and her husband, Andy, went to China to adopt their two daughters, they saw devastating poverty and hunger first hand.

But when Neil learned that 10 percent of Lincoln’s population was below the poverty level, she thought that was inexcusable.

“I’m ashamed by the fact that we have hungry children in Lincoln,” Neil said.

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Volunteers Dane Wiley, Lynn Wells, Wyn Wiley and Crew Keller measure and pour special food packets for the Kids Against Hunger Project at a warehouse in State Fair Park. (Michelle Le)

Volunteers Dane Wiley, Lynn Wells, Wyn Wiley and Crew Keller measure and pour special food packets for the Kids Against Hunger Project at a warehouse in State Fair Park. (Michelle Le)

On Sunday, Neil and her family joined their St. Mark’s United Methodist Church congregation to do their part to help stop hunger at the local and international levels.

The church joined the Kids Against Hunger food relief program with Feeding Children International, a hands-on project where volunteers put together nutritious food packets to deliver to hungry people around the world.

Children stood at tables at the Lincoln warehouse in assembly line style preparing the packets, which will be distributed around Lincoln and sent to needy countries around the world.

“It’s such a simple system,” Neil said. “One kid holds the bag and four others add the ingredients.”

The project teaches children “at a young age how to give and serve,” Neil said. “It’s not painful, it’s not boring — it’s fun.”

Each package consists of four raw ingredients: soy protein, dehydrated vegetables and seasoning, vitamin and mineral powder, and rice.

“You add the rice to boiling water,” Neil said “Everyone in the world knows what to do with rice.”

One bag can feed six to ten people, Neil said.

And because the casserole is vegetarian, it’s universally acceptable, she said.

Neil said the Lincoln satellite will start out packaging four to six times a month.

“But I imagine very quickly we will be doing it four to six times a week,” Neil said. “If every church, business and school could come in once a year, we’d be set.”

Richard Proudfit, 77, the founder of the organization, was in town on Sunday to help set up the Lincoln satellite.

Proudfit, a Minnesota businessman, decided to commit his life to fighting world hunger after a volunteer trip to Honduras when a devastating hurricane hit the country 30 years ago.

“All of a sudden, I saw the children for the first time literally dying all around me,” Proudfit said. “That broke my heart and brought me to my knees.”

A “workaholic” before that fateful trip, Proudfit said God spoke to him after he saw the suffering in Honduras.

“God said — and I didn’t know he was alive — ‘feed my starving children,’” Proudfit recalled.

Proudfit enlisted the help of corporate nutritionists and food scientists to develop a nutritious, vitamin-fortified casserole to distribute to hungry people around the world. He estimates about 20 million servings of the casserole have been shipped to 39 different countries.

“This thing is exploding,” Proudfit said. “We’re seeing recovery and healing throughout the world.”

Each year, 10,000 youths help assemble the food packages, Proudfit said. And that number just keeps growing.

“The youth will feed the youth of the world,” he said. “When you feed the children of the world, it’s your future.”

Reach Hilary Kindschuh at 473-7120 or hkindschuh@journalstar.com

For information about donating, fund raising or volunteering for Kids Against Hunger, contact volunteer coordinator Amy Green at 327-0465 or teamgreen@neb.rr.com.