BROWNSTOWN
For the fifth time in seven years, volunteers with Brownstown Christian Church decided to prepare meals to send to people in Haiti.
The church participated in a food packing project Wednesday evening in partnership with Lifeline Christian Mission, a nonprofit organization that provides meals to ensure people in Caribbean countries, such as Haiti and Honduras, have nourishing food.
Nearly 40 people gathered in the church’s fellowship hall preparing meals of rice, soybeans, enriched vegetables and vitamins — all in one bag.
Four stations were set up, and volunteers wearing hairnets and gloves used measuring cups to put vitamin powder, dehydrated vegetable mix, soy and rice through a funnel and into a bag. Each bag then was weighed to ensure it contained between 390 and 395 grams. Then it was placed upright in a bin to be sealed and put in a shipping box to be sent to Ohio and then Haiti for distribution.
Doug Pogue, associate minister at the church, said approximately 20,000 meals were ready to be prepared Wednesday. In 2019, the church packed 7,000, while in 2017, 10,000 meals were packed.
The church, which raises the funds to purchase the food for the meal-packing event, wasn’t able to prepare meals for Haiti last year due to COVID-19 precautions.
Pogue said he was glad the church was able to continue its mission this year.
“It’s a really good thing from my standpoint,” he said.
This was the church’s fifth time since 2015 hosting a meal-packing event. The last four have been with Lifeline Christian Mission. Besides this past year, the church also didn’t host one in 2018.
Pogue said the church’s congregation is always receptive when asked to help pack food.
“The cool thing here is that when I announced this in our services about three weeks ago, we had people that signed up immediately because they’d been there, done it, they know what to do and they like to see the benefit of being able to work as a team to do this,” he said.
Sherrell Perry said she has volunteered to help with meal packing every year the church has done it.
“It’s a mission,” she said. “We’re serving people who need it.”
She said the church is providing relief to Haiti due to devastation that has happened there, including flooding and hurricanes.
“This is going to feed a lot of people,” she said. “It’s going to keep them nourished.”
In attendance alongside church volunteers was Justin Johnson, a project manager for Lifeline.
Johnson, who lives in Bedford, helped the church box up meals along with his wife and three kids. He said his job is to travel to churches to help with meal packings, and he is “a body to make sure things get done.”
A military veteran and former foreman in the natural gas industry, Johnson has only been with Lifeline for a few months but is proud of the work he has accomplished.
“These things, sometimes, they can be chaotic, sometimes, they go perfect, but I never walk away from one of these and regret it,” he said. “Doesn’t matter how late it was, doesn’t matter how early we got up that morning.”
Lifeline Christian Mission of Westerville, Ohio, started in 1980 and focuses on mission trips, sponsoring children, church planting and home building along with meal packing.
The whole family can participate in a meal-packing event.
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Any organization can host a meal-packing event. It doesn’t have to be a church. For information about Lifeline Christian Mission, visit lifeline.org.
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