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150,120

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Rock Area Kids Against Hunger reaches goal; packages more than 284,000 meals in one year
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By
Mavis Fodness

In less than one year Rock County children and adults have packaged 284,568 meals for school children in Haiti.
Friday morning adult volunteers with Rock Area Kids Against Hunger were a little over halfway to the 2016 goal of 150,000.
On Day 1 of the two-day event, volunteers finished 86,000 meals.
Organizers were hoping the goal of packing 15,000 more meals than last year would be reached at the end of 15 hours.
“We have way over 1,000 volunteers,” said Becky Ossefoort, a KAH adult organizer. “Where else can we work together and feel good about a project?”
In November 2015 the Rock County group packaged 134,448 meals within the same time period, the most ever for the KAH Sioux Falls division.
After this year’s 15-hour packing event the group had bagged 150,120.
“If you can fill 145,000 meals, that is a tremendous amount,” said Jeff Behrend, executive director of the KAH’s Sioux Falls Division. “It’s neat that kids can come together and help kids in another country in need.”
The meals will be transported to a school in Haiti, he said, and they will provide 1,300 children with one meal a day for three months.
In preparing the bagged meals, area school children and adult volunteers worked in 10-member teams in different shifts to place the four ingredients into vacuumed-sealed plastic bags. The bags’ contents of white rice, soy protein, vitamin/flavoring and a dried vegetable blend, when added to six cups of water, yield six servings.
This is the third year for the KAH event.
In 2014 the group packaged 104,000 meals.

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