Our Partners
OUTREACH and FEED6
Joining hearts, minds, and hands in feeding hungry children, families, seniors, and veterans.
Joining hearts, minds, and hands in feeding hungry children, families, seniors, and veterans.
Outreach
(outreachprogram.org) is an Iowa-based 501(c)(3) charity that organizes mobile meal packaging events – partnering with schools, churches, hospitals, companies, organizations, chambers of commerce, and communities that care about the hungry and food insecure. Its compassionate care has earned it GuideStar ranking and Charity Navigator’s
highest rating – four stars!
Formed in 2004, Outreach is the response of philanthropist couple Kathy and Floyd Hammer to the famine, suffering, and grinding poverty they witnessed while traveling inTanzania.
Since 2004, Outreach has packaged over 230 million nutritious meals for the hungry and food insecure in the US and abroad. With only a handful of paid staff for procurement, warehousing, and distribution, Outreach relies on tens of thousands of volunteers each year to package tens of millions of meals.
Feed6
(www.freed6.org): Bill Kanatas and Chris Coyne have built successful businesses –yet have a heart passion for helping the hungry and homeless. They are now partnering to package millions of nutritious Outreach meals for hungry children, families, seniors, and veterans in the Midwest through their grassroots local movement – Feed6.
MEAL PACKAGING
Meal packaging is enormously rewarding - for both the consumers of our nutritious meals - and those who generously donate their time and money to create our meals. We partner with service organizations - schools, churches, civic groups,chambers of commerce, or corporations - and individuals, families, and neighborhood groups - to organize and host meal packaging events. To these events, held in church halls, school gymnasiums, and even stadiums, come
hundreds, sometimes thousands, of volunteers - each prepared to donate money and time to package meals for the hungry and food-insecure in our local communities.
The volunteers are organized into small group assembly lines - creating the meals from bins of bulk ingredients. Six meals go into each labeled, clear plastic bag, that are then carefully weighed and heat sealed to ensure a two-year shelf life.Our most popular entre - pasta and cheese - is fortified with soy protein and nutrients and vitamins.
Volunteers employ safety and hygienic precautions, including hairnets, aprons, gloves, and frequent application of hand disinfectant. The volunteers then box the meals which are distributed by our transport partners to neighborhood agencies, soup kitchens, and shelters. Several hundred volunteers can typically produce 50,000 meals in a couple of hours.
THE REWARDS OF GIVING
It’s fun.
It’s safe.
It feels good.
It brings people and communities together.
It demonstrates activist care.
It bonds the sponsoring organization more fully to the local community.
It makes a difference in our world.
It makes a difference in the life of a hungry or homeless person or animal.
Meal packaging events are festivals of giving and caring that draw communities and neighborhoods together. They are also fun - often with DJs or live music, celebrities, and entertainment - and even with food and drink stalls and gift & handicraft markets. Most importantly, they bring people together - whether families, neighbors, memberships, or congregations - into team building exercises in which any one, of any age or background, can participate. Virtually every organization that sponsors an event, repeats it again - and the volunteers keep coming back.
hundreds, sometimes thousands, of volunteers - each prepared to donate money and time to package meals for the hungry and food-insecure in our local communities.
The volunteers are organized into small group assembly lines - creating the meals from bins of bulk ingredients. Six meals go into each labeled, clear plastic bag, that are then carefully weighed and heat sealed to ensure a two-year shelf life.Our most popular entre - pasta and cheese - is fortified with soy protein and nutrients and vitamins.
Volunteers employ safety and hygienic precautions, including hairnets, aprons, gloves, and frequent application of hand disinfectant. The volunteers then box the meals which are distributed by our transport partners to neighborhood agencies, soup kitchens, and shelters. Several hundred volunteers can typically produce 50,000 meals in a couple of hours.
THE REWARDS OF GIVING
It’s fun.
It’s safe.
It feels good.
It brings people and communities together.
It demonstrates activist care.
It bonds the sponsoring organization more fully to the local community.
It makes a difference in our world.
It makes a difference in the life of a hungry or homeless person or animal.
Meal packaging events are festivals of giving and caring that draw communities and neighborhoods together. They are also fun - often with DJs or live music, celebrities, and entertainment - and even with food and drink stalls and gift & handicraft markets. Most importantly, they bring people together - whether families, neighbors, memberships, or congregations - into team building exercises in which any one, of any age or background, can participate. Virtually every organization that sponsors an event, repeats it again - and the volunteers keep coming back.
