WE DID IT! ! ! - But, we're not finished yet.

Well, we did it! We filled an entire container with food & supplies for those in Haiti.

On Saturday, (with a little help from Friday night) we bagged 169,560 meals to send to starving children in Haiti. We finished at around 8:15 PM on Saturday night with a skeleton crew of between 35-45 people. (I was too tired to remember to get a count. :-) )

Thank you to all who donated time and money to get us to this point!

Our Container was picked up around 1:15 PM on Sunday and began it's journey to Haiti to feed the children via Lifeline Christian Missions.

What follow are photos of the event.

We still have some financial needs to cover the difference between what we have raised and what we need to cover the cost of this project. If you would like to contribute to this project, it isn't too late! Checks can be made out to New Hope Christian Church. (Please put KAH on the memo line so we know what the money is for.) and mailed to NHCC c/o Tess Brennan, 17412 Homewood Rd., Ft. Myers, FL 33967.

It all begins - the trucks arrived on Friday morning with the equipment and raw materials.

Thank you to Quality Cultured Marble for the use of their equipment.

Without this vehicle we would not have been able to load & unload trucks!

Surrounded by stuff.

She waits for mommy amid all the raw materials.

The banana boxes in the back contain other supplies that will be shipped to Haiti.

Set-up.

Things quickly started to take shape as we set up the sanctuary for the big event!

20 bagging stations

24 weighing stations

21 sealing stations

"Uncle" Charlie & his family, Ingrig & Sydney brought us the cookies he made for the event.

They wanted to assist us in our first test run.

Thank you for bagging our first 10 cases of food.

New Hope members test out the assembly line to see that things are set up correctly.

We continued to set up bagging stations around Charlie as they worked and

as more people arrived we bagged a few more cases to get us off to a good start on Saturday.

Levi & Rosie came all the way from Homosassa to help us with this event.

Here, Levi & Frank are making up the boxes to hold our bags of food.

These two made every single box that was used for this event.

Tracy checks on the quality and quanity of our work.
Each bag weighs 13.8 ounces (give or take an 0.2) :-)

There was a job for everyone!
Here, the boys are filling plastic tubs with dried vegetables an important ingredient in the meals.

THE BIG DAY BEGINS!

We started the day with a prayer and then took off running at around 8:00 AM.
(about an hour early)
We worked like a well oiled machine until 8:15 PM when we filled the container to the back doors.
Thank you to the Naples Rotary/Kids Against Hunger Satelite for all the assistance they provided.

As people arrived we trained them and kept the assembly line going.
Here is the beginning... Fill the bags.
Into the funnels go:
1 heaping scoop of dried vegetables
1 level scoop of vitamins/flavoring
1 level cup of soy
1 cup of rice

From the filling stations to the scales.
These people weigh to see that the bags of product weigh between 13.6 and 14.0 ounces.
To the sealers
Where workers flatten out the bags, get the air out and then seal the bags on heat sealers.

Runners kept the project running smoothly by:
Keeping raw materials full
Moving filled bags to the weight team
Moving sealed bags to the box fillers
Moving sealed cases to the palletizers

The bags are layed out onto a grid. 2 bags for each of the 18 squares lets us know we have enough for a full case.
Then the case is loaded with the product and sealed with tape.

Our youngest participant was 7 months old.
The last box that we have to fill! ! ! We're almost done!Everybody signs the last box!
Then:
We circle up and end the day with prayer - before clean-up.
As I receive more photos from members, I will post them.

Thank you for visiting our site and for assisting us with this huge under-taking.

Less than a WEEK! ! !

We are looking forward to meeting all of you who have registered for our big day!

We are setting up the work area on Wednesday night after Bible study.

Friday afternoon the cookies arrive from Uncle Charlie of First Christian Church of Cape Coral.
The raw materials and supplies will also be arriving on Friday afternoon.

We will run a couple of test lines on Friday evening just to be sure we have everything ready to go.

Saturday morning we will arrive to finish last minute set-up of the palletizing area, the registration area & display area.

Then...at 9:00 AM we will open the doors and the excitement will begin!

We are currently at about $11,500 - 1/2 way there fund wise... We are looking forward to this big day and can't wait for the moment we open the doors...


C - U - THERE! ! !

TESS

ARE WE EXCITED YET???

Well, we are in the final run! 10 days until the big day!

We now have almost $10,000 in our account and only need $12,500 more!

If you have a friend who might be interested in Joining us on the 20th, INVITE them and bring them along! ! !

This is an awesome opportunity to help those less fortunate that we are!

God Bless!
Tess

We've upped the shipment!

Thanks to a donation from First Christian Church of Cape Coral we have been able to commit to 3/4 of a container for our food bagging project to be held on October 20th.

A few Changes - Yet things stay the same. :-)

• We are now working with a Kids Against Hunger Satelite out of Naples, FL instead of the Minnisota Satelite. This give us an extra week to raise funds for more food to ship.


• We now have enough stations (Thank you KAH-Naples) to run 24 food bagging stations at once. This will greatly reduce the amount of time it will take to fill the shipping container.


• First Christian Church of Cape Coral joined our campaign.


• We will only be bagging on October 20th (we cancelled the 21st) since we have the ability to do more in less time.


• We now have about $8,500 in our account for this project. Only need $14,000 more.


• We currently have an estimated worker total of around 375 people... Only need about 175 more people committed to help us accomplish this.
• LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION! :-)

A little information on this project!

We will be committing to a 1/2 or full container this week!

Wondering where this money/food goes? Maybe this will answer your questions.

1. We raise the $30,000
2. We buy the bulk food stuffs to make the ready made meals.
3. We put the ready made meals together on October 20th and load them onto a container.
4. The container is shipped to Haiti & Lifeline Christian Missions.
5. The container clears customs and is then opened & distributed.
6. 23 missions will receive food from Lifeline.
7. These missions will make up the food and serve it on site.
8. To be sure the food is getting to those who need it and is not being used corruptly, the missions must return the empty food bags in order to receive more.

What an awesome system to be sure that the money and food we raise and package will go directly to children!

We are up to about 340 workers and almost half the money for a full container.
Those that have told us they are participating include, but are not limited to:

-New Hope Christian Church - North Fort Myers
-New Hope Community Church - Port Charlotte
-Naples Christian Church - Naples
-First Alliance Church - Port Charlotte
-Grace United Methodist Church - Cape Coral/Olga
-Sanibel Community Church - Sanibel Island
-First Christian Church - Lehigh Acres
-Girl Scouts
-Boy Scouts
-4-H clubs

Thank you for your participation, support and prayers!

I will be meeting with Kids Against Hunger tomorrow and will have more information at that time!

God Bless,
Tess

The Count Down Begins!

We have a little more than a month before our confirmation of the food bagging project!

Glenn & Sherry White are contacting friends of theirs and have committed $500 more dollars to our project. This puts us at $5,000 for the cause, only $25,000 to go.

We are in search of organizations that are in need of service projects. (Since that is what this is.) :-) If you know of anyone who may be interested in this project, please feel free to contact me for information.

A few people have been a little confused as to what we mean by a food bagging project. This project consists of about 18 - 2 hour sessions where we put basic ingredients, like rice, flavoring, and vitamins into bags (like those below) then case them up, fill a shipping container, and off it goes to Haiti.

Why Haiti? This is a country where people are so hungry that they will mug school children on their way home from school for the peanut butter they were given to feed their family. This is an opportunity for those of us in SW Florida to give life to those in need, an opportunity to be the hands and feet of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Why Kids Against Hunger? Many people are often hesitant to give to organizations over seas because they don't think the money will be used for the purpose they have been told about. In this case we raise the funds, THEN we actually get to see what our money is paying for and we know that it is being used for it's intended purpose...because...we are putting the meals together ourselves. After we finish our end of the project, it will be shipped to our missionaries in Haiti where it will then be distributed to those who are hungry.

Thank you for assisting us in any way you can. We are requesting three different levels of support.

1. Pray for our mission project that our efforts will be pleasing in the eyes of the Lord.
2. Participants to assist us in raising funds AND in bagging the food stuffs during 1, 2 hour, work session
3. Financial support toward the needed $30,000 through one of our donation levels.

• Gold Sponsorship - $2,500 or more in sponsorship funds. (Only 3 positions remain available.)
• Silver Sponsorship - $1,250 - $2499 in sponsorship funds. (10 positions remain available.)
• Bronz Sponsorship - $ 500 - $1,249 in sponsorship funds.
• Caring Sponsorship - $ 1 - $499 in sponsorship funds

Any donations will be appreciated and get us closer to our ultimate goal!

Thank you for your time, consideration and prayers.

God Bless

School Bash - SUCCESS! ! !

WOW! ! ! What a great day! Students and their parents began arriving around 10 am and started playing games.


Rubber Ducky pick-up, Putt putt golf, bean bag toss, fishing for points, & soft ball toss. Around 10:30 AM the bounce house and velcrow wall arrived & our students had more fun. At 11 we all ate hamburgers & hotdogs with potluck from New Hope Members!

At noon, we wrapped up the fun with the back packs being distributed and then drew for fishing supply prizes that were a surprise to many of us! :-)

What an awesome day! Thank you to everyone who made this possible! Costco, Target, Walmart, Sunshine Ace, Fishing Tackle Factory Outlet, Border's Books, Home Depot, our church members, and the families who brought their children for the picnic!

GOD IS GOOD - ALL THE TIME

You will notice there are no photos of the students. This is because we do not have written permission from any of their families to post them on our site!