The meal packing process is precise to ensure each meal that gets donated is the same. Here, a congregation member measures out macaroni for a package.
Rivermont Presbyterian knows what a significant issue hunger is in Hamilton County. Several members of the congregation volunteer at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank each week. However, they wanted to do more.
That’s why they partnered with Rivermont Second Presbyterian and Northminster Presbyterian to pack and donate $10,000 worth of food for the Chattanooga Area Food Bank.
Meal packing is an increasingly popular service project for food banks in the region. The three churches purchased materials from Outreach Inc., a company that works with organizations to provide the materials and equipment to run a meal packing event. They opted for packages of macaroni and cheese, with each package feeding six people.
In assembly line fashion, hundreds of volunteers measured out dry ingredients, weighed them for uniformity, sealed them and packaged them with a sticker showing nutritional information and instructions for preparation.
“When you compare the nutritional value of these compared to something in a store, you see the Outreach version is considerably more nutritious,” said Carol Secord, director of congregational life with Rivermont Presbyterian.
Outreach’s macaroni meals have significantly more iron, calcium, B vitamins and calories than store-bought brands, all of which are key to ensuring those who are food-insecure get enough nutrition, she said.
In addition, each package is cheaper than store-bought products. The $10,000 the three churches raised through a number of individual fundraisers was able to create 20,000 meals for the food bank, Secord said.
Secord realizes programs like this aren’t a cure for hunger, but said it’s something they can do to help a large amount of people in the short term.
“This is a working congregation,” she said. “When we see there’s a need, we want to work to do something about it.”
According to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, 41 percent of the food-insecure people in the 20 counties it serves are children. In 2012, the food bank distributed over 8.5 million pounds of food to those in need, 2.3 million pounds of which was distributed in Hamilton County.
Secord said the churches specifically chose Outreach because it enabled them to ensure the meals they packed would go directly to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. While other companies select the beneficiaries of the packaged meals themselves, Outreach allows the organizations to specify the recipient.