Riva Sharples | Editor
The fellowship hall at Brooklyn Evangelical Free Church, rural Beresford, was crowded last Saturday morning as church members and area volunteers came together with one purpose in mind: to help those less fortunate.
More than 75 people of all ages – from children to retired folks – came to volunteer their time for the greater good. The volunteers formed assembly lines under the skilled guidance of Then Just Feed One, a service located in Le Mars, Iowa, that equips organizations with the means to bag nutritional meals for those in need.
Together, in about two hours of time, the crew of young and old worked together to package 27,000 meals to benefit people in Haiti through the organization United Christian International, an organization Brooklyn has been supported for many years.
The need in Haiti is great.
Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere with nearly 5.4 million people – half of the country’s population — without sufficient food. Many people are so poor in Haiti that the children resort to eating non-food objects like mud pies or dirt to fill a growling stomach. Wood ashes are also commonly consumed to fill the bellies of hungry children there.
This was the first time Brooklyn has put together food packets for this cause. The Then Feed Just One packets they made contained rice, soy flour, dehydrated vegetables, and a vitamins-infused flavoring packet that will serve six people. At last Saturday’s event, volunteers gathered in groups of six around five work stations. One person would hold a bag open under a funnel in the center of the station, while four other individuals measured and poured in one cup or scoop of the ingredient in front of them: soy flour, rice, dried vegetables, or the vitamins/flavoring combo. As the bag holder moved the bag down the line in the process, another person would position the next bag in place to catch the four ingredients once again, and that is how 27,000 meals were packaged in just two hours.
Of course, once filled, there was still more work to be done to get the package ready, so other volunteers were waiting and ready for measuring, sealing, and packaging. Once filled, bags went to the volunteers working with weight scales, who would make sure that each bag weighted at least 13.8 ounces. If it didn’t, they would top it off with additional rice or other needed ingredients, ensuring that each finished bag could provide the amount of food promised to hungry people.
Further on down the line, a team of workers sealed the bags using a sealer. Then another team of volunteers laid out the bags, two deep, on a grid of 18 spaces. Once full, these 36 bags were then packaged and sealed into boxes, placed on a pallet, and loaded into the waiting truck outside.
This was the first time Brooklyn Church has hosted a food packaging project like this one. It was the brainchild of member Arlyn Abrams, who wanted to do something to help Haiti.
“Brooklyn Church has long supported United Christians International, which has been around for 20 years doing lots of good work in Haiti,” Abrams said. “UCI serves people spiritually, physically, and educationally. We wanted to assist with their feeding program.”
It cost the church approximately $5,000 to buy the supplies needed to make the bags, and an additional $1,500 for transportation costs (to pay for their pallet of meals to go into a container ship headed to Haiti). When the meals reach Haiti, they will be used immediately to help those who are starving.
According to 2025 statistics released by the United Nations earlier this spring, more than half the Haitian population, a record 5.7 million people, are experiencing acute food insecurity currently with two million of them facing what is called “emergency level” hunger. Sadly, tens of thousands are expected to die this year in Haiti due to the lack of food and acute malnutrition. Among the hardest hit are the children.
To find out more about United Christians International and what you could do to help with the situation in Haiti, visit: ucihaiti.org.