My Experience at FMSC

This semester I decided to volunteer at the organization called Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). This organization is non-profit and their most important goal is to feed God's hungry children. They do this by packing "meals specifically formulated for malnourished children, and we ship these meals to our distribution partners". A total of 92% of all donations go directly towards feeding the starving. Also, with each meal cost 22 cents, it only takes about 80 dollars to feed one child. In 2014, FMSC made over 1 billion meals and continues to do extremely successful! (FMSC, 2014)

Feed My Starving Children website: https://www.fmsc.org/

I went to volunteer for three different sessions:
April 16th, from 9:30 to 11:30am (2 hours)

April 30th, from 9:30 to 11:30am (2 hours)

May 1st, from 6:00 to 7:30pm (1.5 hours)

Total: 5.5 hours

I volunteered at the Aurora location for the FMSC organization. I went with other students from Lewis to each session. I noticed when I got there that not many people are ever there, at least when I was there. Soon after that buses full of 3rd graders showed up one of the days, and you can only imagine how crazy it got after that. There are many different roles to take on at the kitchen. You can be a scooper (scoops ingredients and throws them into bag), bagger (holds the bag underneath the funnel to catch all ingredients), weigher (weighs and adjusts the weight of the bags), or sealer (uses a machine to seal the bags air tight). I was both a bagger and a scooper. It was fun because whenever we would finish a whole box full of food bags, we'd chant a saying specific to our table. Everyone was in a joyous happy mood, but at the same time you could feel some tension because of how fast we were going. We were all very determined to get as many bags done in the short amount of time we had. There was loud music playing, so it was easy to hum along. The atmosphere was really something to appreciate, it didn't even feel like I was doing service. It felt more like I needed to be there, as if this is something normal that all people should be required to do. One effective interaction that is very important with me, was the prayer that was said at the end of the session. At the end of every single session, a prayer is said so that the food gets safely to those who need it. At my first session one of the girls that came with her school said a beautiful prayer that made all the adults tear up because of how amazing it is that a young child understands the troubles of the world and wants to help. 

I learned that I definitely need to help out more!! It was my first time going to FMSC this semester and it really was an awesome experience! I am definitely going multiple times this summer to help some more. The adrenalin I felt when I was at the organizations was something I had never felt before. The way that I knew that the little help I'm giving is helping so many children in need makes me feel special and important. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be spending many more hours at the FMSC this summer :)