How to Save a Life: Ruminations on the 2016 Annual Mobile Foodpack
“I want to share with you a story, about a boy named Pierre.”This is how each of Feed My Starving Children’s (FMSC) food packing specialists closed each packing session at Saturday’s Mobile Pack event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.The FMSC workers held up a photo of a gaunt, spiritless little child. Pierre was a small Haitian boy who, at 11 months old, weighed only 12 pounds. Had Pierre been healthy and cared for, he would have weighed somewhere close to 22 pounds. But for one reason or another, Pierre had been neglected and left powerless, as his infant body helplessly craved nourishment and care.The workers then explained that, thankfully, Pierre was found by a fellow nonprofit organization that provides meals to hungry kids through Feed My Starving Children. They then held up another photo of a healthy little boy, with bright eyes, a white smile and plump cheeks.“This is the difference that three months makes. That difference, right there, is less than one box of food.”
One box of food has 36 bags of MannaPack rice. In three months, Pierre would have consumed just 15 bags, which costs less than 20 dollars. It took less than 20 dollars to save the life of Pierre, the life of a starving child in Haiti.
Feed. Educate. Employ. These are the three initiatives that Help for Haiti commits to advancing each and every day. The greatest of these, however, is food.Pierre is now almost four years old. Without the consistent and reliable supply of food provided to him, Pierre would not grow, happily and healthily, into a young adult. He would not receive an education, and he most certainly would not obtain a credible job.Without food, there’s a chance that the 11 month-old would never have even reached his first birthday. But now, Pierre has a chance.And, thanks to the valiant efforts of our volunteers, he’s not the only one. Vil Mariette, Marmalade’s two-time top scorer on the Haiti National Exam, has a chance. And Phaol Dimezil, who has dreams of studying agronomy, to increase the efficiency of Haiti’s agricultural system, he has a chance, too. When the Se Pa Pe’Pe’ ladies’ children are old enough to go to school, they, too, will have a chance to grow up to become Haiti’s new generation of healthy, educated, employable young adults.
This chance to achieve success in life, to live at all, was generously given by the nearly 600 volunteers who hand packed a total 139,192 meals on Saturday. Those hand-packed meals, combined with the meals obtained through our participation in the Pan Florida Challenge for Hungry Kids and collated with the funds our many generous supporters have donated, will provide 480 children in Haiti a hot lunch, every single day of the year.We’ve been packing these meals for six years now. This year, we even reached a 1 million-meal milestone. But nothing is as commendable as you, the people who share in our compassion for the children of Haiti, who reveal humanity and grace as you pack simple meals of rice and soy, year after year.
Thank-you for making a difference in the life of Pierre and in the lives of 480 children in north Haiti. Thank-you for giving your time and energy, so that you can give these kids a chance at life.Yours truly,The Help for Haiti Team