South metro volunteers pack food for millions

As Eric Elton walked through the football field-sized warehouse on Hwy. 13 in Burnsville on Friday, he pointed out the 800-pound boxes of soy nuggets, dehydrated vegetables, chicken-flavored vitamin powder and 44 one-ton bags of rice for the South Metro Meal Pack.

Off to the side was something less typical of a charity event: a partially assembled concert stage. Elton laughed.

"It's part warehouse for packing food," he said, "and part rock concert."

The event, a benefit for Feed My Starving Children, started Monday and runs through Saturday.

The supercharged atmosphere of live music and thousands of volunteers is part of the fellowship that Elton, outreach director for Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville and coordinator of the event, hopes the second annual Meal Pack will create.

He expects about 10,000 volunteers can pack 3.5 million meals to send to hungry children in South and Central America, Africa and Asia. That goal is up from 3 million meals during the first Meal Pack a year ago, which was the largest single haul for FMSC, a Christian charity based in Coon Rapids.

The plan is to feed as many children as possible — 3 million meals would feed 8,219 children for one year, according to FMSC — but also, Elton said, "One of our ultimate goals is to see how many people we can get engaged in this. We wanted something to stretch the community."

Church members have also helped build a connection with local schools where they work or have children enrolled. One middle school will be bringing 450 students for a two-hour shift, Elton said.

During each shift, volunteers combine ingredients into bags and weigh and seal them before they are packed into trucks bound for countries including Haiti, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Young people today have an appetite for volunteering, Elton said.

"Ultimately what we care about," he said, "is our future generations being engaged in the world."

He said the South Metro Meal Pack is an exciting and tangible experience for them, with the loud music, the camaraderie of working in a group with friends, and a shared story with thousands of other volunteers.

Making 3.5 million meals takes more than volunteer time — it also takes money to pay for the meal packs, which are specially developed for optimal nutrition with help from companies like General Mills and Cargill. Elton said students and churches are trying to raise that $660,000 with special offerings, silent auctions and other fundraisers.

The atmosphere is high-energy for a short period of time, but it can spark enthusiasm for more volunteering once the Meal Pack has packed up, said Mark Halvorson, a volunteer with the event and former youth and family minister for Shepherd of the Lake, a Lutheran church in Prior Lake. Last year, the church hosted the South Metro Meal Pack and 2,000 of its members volunteered at the event.

"It really renewed the sense of mission," Halvorson said. "I would say that it pulled the congregation together."

As a result, he said the church dove with new momentum into a project to advocate for homeless families in the south metro.

"It became unstoppable," Halvorson said, "and that was really fun to watch."