As I was getting into my car this morning, I noticed one of my tires looked a bit low. As you may or may not know, I’m not a morning person so this seemed like a bad omen for what the rest of the day might hold. With a sigh, I made my way towards the gas station and scrounged up a dollar in quarters to get the air machine going. As I was putting the air hose back into the machine, my Selfless eye couldn’t help but notice a little advert for Feed My Starving Children right next to the coin insert.
While I was rendering some videos out at the office, I figured I’d look into what Feed My Starving Children was all about a bit more. It turns out that FMSC is a Christian organization aimed at “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.” Although their mission statement sounds pretty straight forward enough, the org has taken that goal much further. Here’s a little story that can put things into perspective:
In 1989, FMSC connected with food scientists from Cargill and General Mills to develop a nutritional product especially for FMSC to feed starving children. This food product included rice, soy, vegetables, a vegetarian-based chicken flavoring, and a vitamin and mineral mix. Food scientists continue to update the formula.
In addition to creating this formula, FMSC sought to develop a cost-effective means of producing the meals in quantities that would make a real difference in alleviating world hunger. To distribute the packed meals, the FMSC team began establishing partnerships with major global distribution nonprofits and imbedded missionaries such as Salesian Missions, Love A Child, Cross International, Samaritans International, and World in Need. These partnerships allow FMSC to reach desperately needy children in remote parts of the world by leveraging the partner’s in-country expertise. This expertise allows the partner to help ensure that the orphanages, schools and facilities for disabled children are provided hot, nutritious meals—and a ray of hope for the future.
In December of 2003, FMSC’s Board of Directors voted to rededicate the organization to Christ. Since that moment, FMSC’s growth has been virtually exponential. In 2003 FMSC produced 3 million meals with one packing site and 17,000 volunteers. By 2011 FMSC produced over 133 million meals with 6 permanent packing sites, and a nationwide MobilePack program, and more than 565,000 volunteers.
After looking at their world distribution map, I was floored to find out that they have shipped over 8,000,000 meals to the Philippines and collectively over 16,000,000 meals all over Africa. That. Is. Amazing. For anyone local to the Chicagoland area looking to get involved with FMSC to volunteer, there’s a food packing location right in Schaumburg that you can check out.
And as always, if you have anything Selfless you “spot” in the real world, shoot us an e-mail at info@iamselfless.org and we’ll be sure to post it on our site!