Diverse News 2007®

bank loans news with a different slant bank loans
Christians Donate 1.5 Million Meals to Haitians
    WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, May 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This spring the
Lutheran Church of Hope here challenged its members to provide a million
meals to hungry people. When the "alleluias" of Easter arrived, this
congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) exceeded
all expectations: it collected nearly 1.6 million meals to send to Haiti
and distributed another 66,000 meals in the Des Moines area.

    The meals bound for people in Haiti are expected to arrive in June.
    More than two-thirds of the congregation's 6,700 members volunteered in
a three-pronged effort. Most volunteers measured out portions of rice, soy,
dried vegetables and protein in pre-labeled plastic bags bound for Haiti.
Others collected and distributed 3,000 bags of groceries, containing 54,000
meals, locally. A third group prepared and hand-delivered more than 12,000
sandwich lunches to homeless people living under bridges, underpasses and
in camps by the Des Moines River.
    Nancy Armstrong, a retired schoolteacher, accepted the invitation to
deliver food in person. She was worried about imposing on the dignity and
feelings of people who are homeless. But, when she went to the river camps
on a cold and windy March day, "I thought, 'How cold these people must
be,'" said Armstrong.
    Jerry Armstrong, Nancy's husband, said that as they handed out
sandwiches the volunteers asked if they could pray for those receiving the
lunches. "One fellow said to me, 'You guys don't understand how thankful we
are. What you're doing is what Christianity is about,'" Jerry Armstrong
said.
    Tina Rasmussen volunteered with her husband Mark to help assemble meals
bound for Haiti, and they helped coordinate and train volunteers.
    "It really helped my family realize that we're part of God's larger
family," said Rasmussen.
    For the Haiti effort the congregation partnered with Max Holmes, a
member and owner of a local car dealership. Holmes founded a local branch
of Kids Against Hunger, a Minnesota-based effort to package and distribute
food internationally to communities that lack food. He provided a
storehouse for supplies and where assembly could take place seven days a
week.
    The food was boxed and transported to Minnesota on pallets, where it
will be loaded into four shipping containers and sent to Haiti.
    Contact: John R. Brooks, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
john.brooks@elca.org or (773) 380-2958
terms and conditions