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January 25, 2013

Heaven Sent Ministries seeks help to feed hungry children

By TAMMIE TOLER Princeton Times

PRINCETON — Heaven Sent Ministries is on a mission to help Princeton feed starving children.

The non-profit organization committed to sending nourishing food to people in need is planning its third annual Hunger Challenge in Mercer County. The three-day event is scheduled for March 22-24 at Johnston Chapel Baptist Church.

That’s when Heaven Sent Ministries Hunger Challenge Director Lynda Gravier hopes more than 1,000 local volunteers will unite to send more than 250,000 meals to starving children in Ghana.

“To me, it’s a very personal way to feed somebody,” Gravier said, explaining that once the bags of rice, chicken flavor and nutrients are sealed inside cardboard boxes and shipping containers by volunteers, the next hands to touch them belong either to missionaries feeding the hungry or by a family in desperate need of nutritious food.

While Heaven Sent Ministries has packaged food for third-world countries for years, the Hunger Challenge events are relatively new. They allow HSM leaders to take the program on the road, all over the nation, to churches and communities that have expressed a desire to help feed the world.

Each cardboard box packaged during a Hunger Challenge contains 216 meals that only need water and heat to be fully prepared. A box can be funded for only $65.

Those boxes are then packaged larger containers and sent to Ghana in massive shipping containers. A 20-foot shipping container can hold 660 boxes for a total 142,560 meals.  A 40-foot shipping container will hold as many as 1,320 boxes, for a total of 285,120 meals.

According to the Heaven Sent Ministries website, www.hsminc.org, “Each assembly line group of 12 people will package 12 boxes of food during the two-hour time period.  Therefore, each person packages one box of food – 216 meals – during his time slot.  If you have 1,000 volunteers, you will assemble 1,000 boxes and provide 216,000 meals.”

Once at the food’s destination, Heaven Sent ministers, missionaries and volunteers set out to feed the body and souls of the people who need it the most.

“When you see pictures that our missionaries send us, they’re of children and families sitting and eating,” Gravier said. “The fact that they are eating is amazing. This food makes a huge difference.”

The food product that Hunger Challenge workers package has been specially formulated to provide for the nutritional needs of malnourished people. In particular, the food nourishes starving children, helping their immune systems to function.  

“According to the food scientists who developed this food blend, it supplies the optimum amount of nutrition for a malnourished children.  Much more than just a meal, the food provides better health to starving children,” HSM’s website reads.

For more information on Heaven Sent Ministries or the upcoming Hunger Challenge, contact Gravier at 304-425-7120.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

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