Volunteers are needed to help prepare food packages as part of an effort to provide “Meals from the Heartland.” Pastor Doug Opp, in Audubon, says the organization (mealsfromtheheartland.org) started in 2007 helping to meet the needs of the hungry in Iowa and elsewhere in the U-S and around the world.  Pastor Opp says more than 10.6-million meals were packed last year with the help of Iowans and other volunteers. This year, the goal is 15-million meals.

Meals from the Heartland 2013 event

Opp says the Iowa National Guard Armory in Audubon is the site this Friday, April 10th, or the latest effort to help packing the meals. The event will be ongoing throughout the afternoon and evening. $32,000 has been raised to date, which allows 160,000 meals to be packed. Each meal includes soy, rice, vitamins and nutritional supplements.

The goal is to get enough volunteers to assemble the packs. Each pack serves six people.

To volunteer an hour of your time to help, call 712-563-2625, text 712-304-5567. The shifts run from 3-until 8-p.m., Friday. Area high school students will be packing from Noon until 3. The public is needed to help pack afterward, especially from 3-to 4-pm, and 7-to 8-pm. Interested persons need to arrive 15 minutes before their shift, in order to view a training video.

You can also help by making a tax deductible donation. Address your checks to Meals from the Heartland, and give to your local church. If you have questions, call Pastor Doug Opp at 712-563-2625, or Pastor Steven Frock at 712-268-2660. The packages will be transported in boxes and then on pallets before being trucked to West Des Moines. Persons in the State of Iowa will be provided with meal packs first, before they are sent to the rest of the U-S and the world.