Naperville Noon Lions served as a sponsor of a volunteer opportunity at the Feed My Starving Children event held in early March at Benedictine University. In addition, Naperville Lions joined volunteers from other civic organizations at the event on March 8 to pack nutritious meals that were then sent to the neediest of people around the world.
Lion Jim Woodbring reported working with a table team of six Lions adding scoops of vitamins and minerals, mixed dried veggies, soy protein, and rice to 390 gm heat-sealed pouches. Each pouch makes six cups of stew at 212 calories each.
“In a five-minute challenge, our table packed six boxes of 36 pouches, a total of 216 pouches. That’s 43 pouches per minute!” Woodbring said. “The whole shift, with many tables packing, produced 619 boxes, for a total of 133,704 meals. That amount should feed 366 children for a year.”
With a total of six shifts working, nearly 4,000 volunteers packed 794,664 meals (132,444 pouches). At 390 grams per pouch, total weight would be 57 tons, plus box weight. A forklift was used to load boxes into waiting semi-trucks.
A FMSC official said they are not part of the canceled USAID program, although the cuts of social and aid programs could cause them logistical problems.
Noon Lions Approve Charitable Contributions
At a recent Naperville Noon Lions Meeting, the Board of Directors approved the following donations: $2,000 to Angelman Syndrome Foundation Walk, $7,500 to Feed My Starving Children, $1,000 to Operation Support Our Troops-America, $2,000 to Dare2Tri and $5,000 to Fry Family YMCA CPR Training Equipment.
Anyone who would like to help Naperville area charities is invited to learn more about the Lions Club. The Lions offer active as well as financial support to scores of 501 c3 nonprofits.
The Naperville Noon Lions gather the first four Tuesdays of each month at noon for a luncheon meeting at the Pomegranate Restaurant, 55 S Commons Drive in Aurora. Lions enthusiastically welcome visitors to all meetings.
“Find out how you can put your skills to work in your community and meet interesting new people along the way,” noted Lion Dianne Morr.
