Giving Thanks for Helping Hands
This is the day we Americans talk about meals, so I thought today would be appropriate. This might be a different slant to your table talk and your thanks giving today.
Helping Hands, founded in 2012, is a project of the CRS, Catholic Relief Services, and has its roots in the Eucharistic imperative to serve our brothers and sisters in the world. CRS Helping Hands works with volunteers at events all over the U.S. with parishes, schools, universities and conferences. The meals that are packaged go to Burkina Faso in West Africa. Cyclical droughts, floods, and a cut in food aid leave the poorest of the poor there vulnerable to hunger. In Burkina there are 27 church-run centers that serve the victims of hunger, trauma and disease and disperse the meal packages.
The meals consist of rice, dehydrated soy, dehydrated vegetables and a flavor packet containing 23 vitamins and minerals. Each volunteer has a station in the packaging process. The funnel station measures each ingredient and funnels it into a plastic bag. Runners move the open bags to the sealer station where the weight of each bag is checked and the bags are sealed for shipment. The filled and sealed bags are given to the boxing station where boxes are filled, labeled and sealed for shipment.
I read online that there is a minimum commitment an organization makes in order to have Helping Hands come and be part of an event. But if you work with youth and are part of large retreats or conferences you might want to look into this. You can email Rachael Holmes: rachael.holmes@crs.org or phone her at 410-951-7485. It’s a worthwhile project for youth to have a hand in.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.