Friday June 2, 2017
By Hannah Covington
Feed My Starving Children is aiming for 30,000 volunteers in coming days to help.
A Minnesota-based international nonprofit is rushing to rally volunteers and raise funds to fight a famine in Somalia in what is shaping up to be the largest meal-packing event in its 30-year history.
Feed My Starving Children, a charity in Coon Rapids, wants to recruit 30,000 volunteers to pack 6 million meals in the coming days to help a nation where millions are grappling with dire food and water shortages.
As of Thursday afternoon, just under 17,000 people had signed up to help. Even so, it marks the most volunteers that the nonprofit has recruited before a meal-packing event, said spokeswoman Allison Schwartz.
"We will pack as many meals as we possibly can," Schwartz said.
The meals cost 22 cents apiece. The charity is working with nonprofits, faith groups and leaders from the Twin Cities Somali community for the event, which begins Friday and runs through Monday at St. Paul RiverCentre. Metro Transit will provide free rides to and from the event.
Somalia is among four countries where famine has threatened more than 20 million people, a situation that the United Nations is calling the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II.
Mohamed Idris, executive director of the American Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa (ARAHA), just returned from a visit to the region and said the severe drought has ravaged the landscape.
"It was devastating," said Idris, whose group is also participating in this weekend's event. "This is the longest drought ever seen in that part of the world."
Volunteer sign-ups are available online. Those unable to make the event can also donate toward the $1.5 million needed to fund the meal packs, Schwartz said.