Gehlen helps Kids Against Hunger

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
May 18, 2006

LE MARS - Students in grades three through twelve at Gehlen Catholic in Le Mars took time out of their day on May 12 to help feed the children of the world.

Along with the students, faculty and staff of Gehlen as well as community members gathered at Gehlen to fill bags with nutritious ingredients for the Kids Against Hunger organization.

"We prepared more than 181,000 meals on Friday thanks to the more than 300 students and 100 volunteers who helped," said Lisa Niebuhr, development director at Gehlen. "We also presented a check for $11,200 to Kids Against Hunger to pay for the meals."

Kids Against Hunger is a component of Feed the Children International. Through Kids Against Hunger, bags of nutritious food are prepared and shipped to starving children.

"Kids Against Hunger is designed to allow the kids to see Jesus in themselves. It also allows for the community and the parishes to once again say that they see Jesus in the students and that they are living their faith and their commitment to serving one another - locally, nationally, internationally," said Niebuhr.

Niebuhr pointed out that 40,000 children die in the world every 24 hours from hunger, starvation and malnutrition.

"We help because of what we have seen firsthand in Honduras with the children that are starving that our medical team has helped," she explained.

Every bag includes rice, oats, veggies and beef bouillon powder that provide food and nutrition for six people. The food will be distributed to people in Honduras, Africa and a few other places.

"All the families do is add water, put it in a pot and they are able to cook it over an open fire," said Niebuhr. "This allows them to have a good nutritious meal."

The volunteers worked in two-hour shifts from either 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. or 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. The tasks consisted of bagging the ingredients, weighing the bags, sealing the bags and packing the bags into boxes to be shipped. The boxes were loaded onto pallets and put on a trailer to be shipped.

Niebuhr noted that in the first hour and a half, the volunteers packed more than 22,000 meals.

"We do our annual fall service day and it is a huge success," said Niebuhr. "The kids love giving back. It is a great way for people to see what impact Gehlen Catholic and a Catholic education has."

Niebuhr continued that Dick Sievert, director of Mission Honduras and Gehlen teacher, brought the idea of Kids Against Hunger up in January.

"We sent a team of volunteers to watch a 24-hour group packing," said Niebuhr. "They came back so excited. We decided this would be a great way to get everyone involved. Our kids have all been involved in supporting Honduras, but only so many can go. What a great way that they can say they made a difference both locally and on the international front, too."

According to Niebuhr, a second grader at Gehlen, Emily Oetken, wanted to help with the project as well.

"She celebrated her birthday just recently and invited a whole bunch of classmates over," said Niebuhr. "She said to them, 'Don't bring me a birthday present, instead of spending $5 on a gift, put $5 in a card.' All of her birthday presents went to help purchase the food we are preparing today."

Each Gehlen students was asked to make a donation up to $20. Niebuhr commented that some families were able to donate more and some were not.

"Those families who were not able have been supported by people in the community who are giving more today or people who aren't able to be here today," said Niebuhr. "They said, 'I can't be here, so let me pay so a child can work in my place.'"