Glory be to God! After weeks of discussion and trading notes, we got confirmation last week that Feed My Starving Children, a Minneapolis-based non-profit, will donate to the Mission a 20' container-load of prepackaged balanced meals — enough to provide a meal each school day throughout the year for the 500+ students, teachers & assistants in the three schools throughout the coming school year. The packets contain a nutritionally balanced mix of rice, ground soybeans, vegetable protein, vitamins and minerals. Simple preparation (boil for about 10 minutes), but not so simple when you get to the logistics of 400 meals/day, as at St. Augustine's! This food is absolutely free — at their warehouse in Aurora IL.
BUT… it must be gotten from Aurora to Port-au-Prince, cleared through customs (no easy process and one likely to require some grease), delivered to storage depots within the country (at Maison Mission, St. Nicholas School, and St. Augustine's School — the three more than sufficient). Large-scale cooking equipment is required and, in the case of St. Augustine's, at least one full-time cook and a relief cook.
Most of these people don't currently get even a single solid meal a day. The news stories are not exaggerated. Now is our chance to do something about it (and, almost certainly, continue to do so in years to come). But to do it, we have to provide "the rest". I've already committed the Mission to doing it, and know how to scrape together the funds for the container shipment (but only by borrowing from funds already committed to other purposes, and from non-Mission funds). It's up to you, the faithful (and even the non-faithful who hurt at the thought of children suffering from hunger and malnutrition. So what is it?
$5500 for the container shipment, Illinois to Port-au-Prince, by truck, rail & sea
$2000 for customs and in-country delivery costs (nothing moves cheap in Haiti — gas $8/gal.)
$2500 for cooking equipment for the three schools, cooking fuel, and compensation for the cooks (a considerable part of this a one-time expenditure)
TOTAL: $10,000 to be raised. $25/child for a meal each school day throughout the coming school year. About 12.5¢/meal. Before you decide to replace your car, or go out for a fancy dinner, or buy a new suit or dress, think and pray about it. That's only $100 each for 100 families. And look what you get for your money!
Received so far (9 August): $3400 (the additional $3000 for the container shipment, which is due to leave Illinois next week and must be prepaid, will have to be "borrowed" from Mission funds needed for next year's school costs).
BALANCE NEEDED: $6600
Those are some big numbers, but so are these: For this shipping and preparation cost, 20 pallets of 33 boxes each of 36 packages, each sufficient for six meals, get delivered.
142,560 meails, over 11 tons of food. Look at it from that perspective, and it's pretty cheap!
By the way, we "use-tested" a package of this food. Each packet is supposed to serve six. We cooked one up. Tasted it — edible, but not very interesting. Added a bit of Haitian spices and it was very tasty. Served three adults and two children (good eaters all!) as the sole dish for dinner one night, and had a considerable amount left over for the next day. Certainly a lot better buy than a box of Captain Crunch!