Kids Against Hunger spreads through diocese

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
May 15, 2008

Standing on a chair, Richard Seivert announced that volunteers at Gehlen Catholic had packaged 71,280 meals for Kids Against Hunger (KAH) by 11:45 a.m. on May 9.

This was only part way through the packing event in Le Mars. By the end of the day, volunteers had packaged 194,400 meals.

"The concept of having to pay to work is amazing. They are doing it with their own money and with their own hands. A lot of times you write a check and send it to charity. The concept here is just the opposite. They pay to work. They own the food, the boxes, everything," said Seivert, Gehlen Catholic 7-12 guidance counselor and director of Mission Honduras. "We are filling a void and a need that people have to make a difference in the world."

Gehlen's packing event was held from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

 Students in grades kindergarten through 12th along with staff, faculty and community members participated in two-hour shifts.

This is Gehlen's third year and Seivert hopes they continue to participate in the future.

The numbers

Several other schools and communities in the Diocese of Sioux City also held Kids Against Hunger packing events this year.

"It is spreading so fast," said Seivert. "Last year Spalding and Gehlen were the only ones in our area. This year we have just under 6,000 working in this area - churches, clubs, schools."

Carroll Kuemper held their first KAH packing event this year on March 19. Volunteers packaged 492,992 meals throughout the day.

A total of 1,650 volunteers at Kuemper packaged from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Volunteers from the community included groups from other churches, CCD, public school groups, and various groups from the surrounding communities.

The students in grades 2nd through 12th worked two-hour shifts and kindergarten through 1st worked an hour. The adult volunteers also worked two-hour shifts on the even hours.

Father Joe Dillinger, Carol Andersen and John Kitch went to Gehlen and worked last year.

"We felt this was something we could do here also," said Kitch, a teacher at Kuemper. "Many students had been asking about service opportunities. We felt this would be a good school/community project." The project was used as a Lenten activity.

Religious education students in grades 2nd through 12th from Sacred Heart Cluster, Resurrection Parish in Pocahontas and St. Margaret in Rolfe, held a KAH event from 6 to 8 p.m. May 7. Along with the students, adults and families from the cluster gathered to fill bags with nutritious ingredients.

Carolyn Pudenz, DRE and youth minister at Resurrection Parish, said Seivert had spoke to the students about Mission Honduras. They were not able to send anyone to Honduras but wanted to help in some way.

The group of more than 100 volunteers prepared approximately 33,700 meals and a check for $4,468.70 was presented to Kids Against Hunger - Le Mars.

"It is our effort to impact the world one person at a time," said Pudenz. "We are not going to save the whole world but to that one person it will make a difference."

Granville Spalding held a KAH event from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 8. This was their second year. A total of 157,032 meals were packaged.

Volunteers included kindergarten through 12th Spalding students, 8th through 12th from Remsen St. Mary's, 5th through 8th from St. Patrick's in Sheldon and many adult volunteers. More than 150 people packaged during each two-hour shift.

"Dick Seivert put the challenge out there for us," said Beth Bunkers, the 7-12 PE teacher and athletic director at Spalding. "After we evaluated it, we thought it was a neat experience for our kids. We expanded it to include Remsen and Sheldon as a cooperative effort between the Catholic schools that are so close."

Last year students from Bishop Heelan Catholic Schools traveled to Le Mars for the KAH project. This year the school held its own on April 23 at Long Lines in Sioux City for BHCS students to participate in.

Sixth through 12th graders from BHCS - Holy Cross, Mater Dei, Sacred Heart and Heelan - volunteered for the event. Teachers, staff and other adults participated as well.

About 900 volunteers worked one-hour shifts from 8:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. They packaged 131,336 meals.

"We like to do service with our students," said Mary Jayne Mousel, head teacher at Holy Cross in Sioux City. "After visiting Gehlen last year, we thought this was a worthwhile project to do. We thought it went well for the first year."

On April 30, St. Mary's in Hawarden held a KAH event and packaged 23,200 meals from 6:45 to 8 p.m. The kindergarten through eighth grade religious education students, the confirmation class, teachers and adults packaged the meals.

"It was a good project to help the kids realize that some people go hungry every day," said Father Roger Linnan, pastor at St. Mary's. "They have been saving since Advent to pay for this. Hungry people need help. It shows our kids that if you want to do something, you can do something to help. It inspires and strengthens them to do things like this in the future."

Feeding the hungry

Spalding ninth grader, Sara Means, was part of a team filling bags and poured in the chicken base. She thinks this is a good project to support because it gives her the opportunity to give to the less fortunate.

"It gives our school a chance to work together with people in the community and other schools to help people in need. It was an awesome experience and a lot of fun," she said.

Megan Glover, a sixth grader at Holy Cross, was able to help package meals. Her first job was to hold the bags while others put in the ingredients. Later on, her job was to pour rice in the bags.

"I think it was a good project because it helped people that don't have enough and they need the food," she said. "It was really fun. It felt good to know that we were helping people that need the food."

Gehlen senior, Erin Augustine, recently traveled with Mission Honduras to a malnutrition center where some of the meals will be sent.

"We saw the kids that were starving," she said. "They are so tiny and skinny. They were so sweet."

She thought the packing event was fun because she might have been packaging a bag of food that will feed "the kid I was holding while I was down there."

Augustine's job for the day was sealing the bags before they were put in boxes to be shipped.

"We felt the program was a good way to teach service to our students with many other benefits. It brought about great community involvement," said Kitch. "Members of the community were working alongside our students. It brought about awareness of the needs in the world."

He added that the program allowed them to get the most use out of their dollars - money paid for the food and they provided the labor.

"We also were able to choose where the food went. The actual packaging of the meals gave the students a sense of true involvement and ownership in the project," said Kitch.

He said the hope is to do this each year as part of Lent, however, with the price of rice going up and shipping costs going up, "we may have to revise our goal and/or destination." Next year's packing event at Kuemper is planned for April 8.