Help needed packing meals for Haitian kids

Friday, May 6, 2011 PORTSMOUTH — Local businesses, community members, and church leaders are joining together to pack 100,000 meals on May 21 to be shipped in a container to Haitian children. Organized by Help for Haiti, a local non-profit, Bethany Church, and local business leaders this event seeks the community's help for two-hour shifts (9 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m.) to pack bio-engineered high protein meals into sealed plastic bags for local distribution on the ground in Marmalade and other rural villages.
"It's been amazing how many people have pulled together to make this happen," said Mark Rivera, Campus Pastor-Intern of Bethany Church. "Leaders from the business community, Help for Haiti, and church congregants have been meeting since late 2010 with the vision to supply 100,000 meals and now we're making it happen."
The team is partnering with Feed My Starving Children, an organization based in Minnesota chartered with eliminating starvation in children throughout the world by helping to instill compassion in people to hear and respond to the cries of those in need. Their approach is grass roots: children and adults hand-pack meals specifically formulated for malnourished children. They have provided "food packing events" and shipped meals to nearly 70 countries around the world.
"After travelling to Haiti for over seven years to help the poor, my wife Betsy and I decided to found Help for Haiti, a Christian non-profit organization based in Rye, New Hampshire," said Jim Willey, Founder and President for Help for Haiti, and former president of Willey Brothers. "There are children and families starving, the unemployment rate is over 80 percent, people really need our help. It's time to pull together and do something. Getting the community together to pack 100, 000 meals on a Saturday is one way you can make a difference."
Jim Willey and Help for Haiti need your help to pay the $ 30,000 cost for the food and to cover the shipping cost for 100,000 meals to the schools in Haiti. Their goal is to provide a lunch for 500 kids each day they are in school who need food to be alert and to learn. To donate, please visit: www.helpforhaiti.org or send your donation to Help for Haiti PO Box 103 Rye, NH 03870.
The Help for Haiti promise is that 100 percent of your donation will go directly to the cost of the food and the shipping cost.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Forty percent of Haiti's 9 million people are under the age of 14 years old, there is a 23 percent literacy rate and 12 percent of children die before the age of 5 years. Eighty percent of children do NOT receive education past sixth grade.
The Frank Jones Center is at 400 Route One By-Pass (Portsmouth Traffic Circle), Portsmouth. Register: www.helpforhaiti.com/foodpack/, Donate: www.helpforhaiti.org.
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