The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Wellesley Village Church participates in its fourth Feeding Frenzy

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It was Feeding Frenzy Sunday at Wellesley Village Church, and for the fourth year running parishioners lined up assembly-style to scoop and measure macaroni and cheese and beans and rice ingredients, weigh them, and vacuum seal the healthy meals up, ready to be transported to food pantries across the region.

Wellesley Village Church, End Hunger
End Hunger New England comes in to churches, corporations, and other organizations and sets up the assembly lines. From there, volunteers work together to create nutritious, protein-enriched meals from bulk ingredients. The meals are then brought to food pantries and other charitable organizations in the community and distributed by local volunteers.

 

Wellesley Village Church, End Hunger
Wellesley Village Church parishioners in action on the assembly line. The long tables are equipped with nothing higher-tech than plastic scoops, funnels, and scales. Sanitization is a very big deal with End Hunger NE. The company supplies hairnet, beard nets, gloves and hand sanitizer to packing teams. Team members then scoop raw ingredients, weigh meals for accuracy, seal the meal packs, and box the completed meals.

 

Wellesley Village Church, End Hunger
Matthew Martin, regional manager for End Hunger New England , preaching to the choir. Martin is a former Lutheran minister who has devoted his life to making sure hungry kids get the food they need. “One in six American kids is hungry,” he says. “We will end hunger in the Northeast.” Some of the local places the prepackaged meals go: Neighbors in Need, Hope Food Pantry, A Place to Turn.

 

Wellesley Village Church, End Hunger
I asked Martin the tough question: “Is your family in the rice business?” He says he only wishes, and that his family and the Martin rice company people aren’t related. When an organization signs on for this program, that group pays for the meals: 25 cents feeds a kid, $1 a family of 4. Martin handles all of the details, meaning End Hunger NE brings the materials to the site, sets everything up, trains the groups in how to assemble the meals, provides constant on-site support during the event, then transports the food to local food shelves and schools or regional food banks.

Wellesley Village Church, End Hunger
A packing team of six volunteers can create about 1,000 meals in one hour. For families who receive the packets, meal preparation is simple and does not require additional ingredients. Most meals are prepared by boiling water and adding ingredients until water has boiled down and contents are cooked thoroughly. Each bag has preparation instructions in pictures on the back for reference.

 

Wellesley Village Church, End Hunger
According to End Hunger’s website, the food insecurity rate in Norfolk County is 7.8% of the population. That translates to 53,810 food insecure people. Those who are food insecure at some point during the week literally don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Either they can’t afford to buy food, or don’t have access to food.
Wellesley Village Church, End Hunger
Outreach, Inc., the parent company of End Hunger NE was founded in 2004 and has about $5.5 million in yearly expenses. Their two biggest expense categories: Meal ingredients and packaging, coming in at about $1.8 million; and salaries, which cost the 501(c)(3) company a little over 1 million. The rest goes to things like equipment maintenance, insurance, contributions to programs, shipping costs, medical missions, and other expenses.

 

Wellesley Village Church, End Hunger
Load up the meals and move them out. Perhaps Wellesley Village Church will see you again next year, Matthew.

Also of interest…

Wellesley charitable and community action groups

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