News : 180 Volunteers from Area Churches Prepare and Package over 30,000 meals

By Allyson Brawner On Saturday February 11th, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Walker hosted a meal packaging event. Over 30,000 meals were packaged over three hours by approximately 180 volunteers. Several area churches partnered with Sacred Heart to make this event possible. The volunteers present represented ten different churches, and several churches and individuals contributed financially to make the event possible. Last year, parishes in the Archdiocese of Dubuque were challenged by Archbishop Michael Jackels to work on a project that would make God's mercy shown to the local community. Sacred Heart, part of the Heart of Mary Cluster of parishes, decided to host the meal packaging event through Meals from the Heartland, an Iowa based nonprofit that makes it possible for organizations to package meals for local and global distribution. Sacred Heart would like to thank the following churches for volunteering and/or contributing financially: Alice United Methodist, Center Point United Methodist, Coggon United Parish, Rowley United Methodist, Silver Creek United Methodist, St. Mary in Urbana, St. Mary in Vinton, Troy Mills Christian, Urbana United Methodist, and Walker United Methodist. Mitchell Rawson, a parishioner from Sacred Heart in Walker, getting boxes full of packaged meals ready to ship. Youth from the Rowley United Methodist Youth Group fill meal bags with rice, soy, dried vegetables, and vitamins. Volunteers working in an assembly line to fill, seal, and package bags of meals. Mike Fransden, Hunger Fight Manager from Meals from the Heartland, and Deacon Steven Ford from Sacred Heart, get ingredients ready for the meal packaging assembly lines.