Mercy Meals of Lincoln aims to pack 100,000 meals at big event

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – It’s a lot of work to prep 100,000 meals, but Mercy Meals of Lincoln spent Friday morning with almost 500 new friends to help the hungry.

Timed to coincide with the FFA convention, this big event made the most of the extra hands.

“Four-hundred and eighty of them have volunteered to help package the dry meals that we send around the world,” Mercy Meals President Bob Marshall said.

Some of it’s already dedicated to go to the Philippines. Other locations thrown around are India, Haiti and possibly Ukraine.

These meals will be sent wherever they’re needed, and they’re specially designed for the long journey.

Mercy Meals Secretary-Treasurer Kathy Carter describes each pack: “One cup of soy meal, one cup of rice, a heaping teaspoon of dehydrated vegetables, and a level teaspoon of this chicken-flavored vitamin/mineral bouillon mix.”

Not only is the food good, but it’s also good for you.

“Each serving has 18 grams of protein in it,” Carter said. “When you mix six cups of boiling water with the meal and cook it, you have six meals to feed hungry people. And it’s very filling, and it’s very delicious. I’ve even tasted it!”

It also only costs around 12 cents per bag. Still, that does add up, so financial support is crucial.

Union Bank & Trust put up around $15,000 to help it all come together.

“This will be our third year doing Living to Serve,” UBT marketing coordinator Hanna Davis said. “We started in 2018, partnering with Orphan Grain Train. Because of the pandemic, we weren’t able to do it in 2020 or 2021, so this is our first year back.”

Orphan Grain Train is the group that’s going to transport the prepped meals on the first leg of their journey.

It’s that sort of partnership that makes the whole process run smoothly, despite the chaos.

There’s one group that Marshall is particularly happy to involve.

“The people, the human beings, that get this more than anybody else are the 3- and the 4- and the 5-, the 6-year-old kids,” he said. “When you tell them that we are making food because children are going to bed hungry around the world, they are just indignant. They can’t believe that such a terrible thing should happen in our world, and they want to do everything they can to change that.”

The goal is 100,000 meals, but thanks to all the help, word is that they’ll pass that goal and keep on going.

And why not? It’s certainly worth the effort.