What a show. Watching 300 students assemble and pack 10,000 meals in four hours is like watching a beehive in overdrive.
Bearspaw Christian School gymnasium was that hive of activity, as the school took part in its first-ever Feed the Need fundraiser on Dec. 11. Run by U.S.-based Champion Group, it was the first fundraiser of its kind in Canada, with the 10,000 bagged meals headed for Haiti.
“It’s an awesome event,” exclaimed Bearspaw Christian president Kelly Blake, as kids and adults manned tables behind him, forming an assembly line of food preparation and packaging. “The purpose of Feed the Need was to raise money for the school for what we call our discipleship efforts which is all about teaching kids how to serve others. As well as that, in addition to raising money, we’re also packing 10,000 meals to send to needy kids in Haiti.”
The process was quite simple: students at the Kindergarten-Grade 12 (K-12) school entered the gym where they sat in the bleachers watching a brief video presentation on the process of preparing and packaging the meals. From there they went to the portion of the gym where stations were set up at tables for different tasks. One group measured and poured the dehydrated food products into plastic bags that were sent down the assembly line to be sealed, labeled and then boxed for shipping.
“It’s all dehydrated food,” Blake said. “Some of it is a chicken mixture that’s literally been powdered, created by food engineers, that’s full of vitamins and minerals. There’s dehydrated vegetables, there’s rice, there’s vitamins all added to a package. They add water and they have six meals in one package.”
More than 300 of the school’s 723 students participated in the initiative aimed at raising $200,000 for the school and feeding hungry Haitians.
“The world around us is changing minute by minute,” said Dr. Marv Penner, Dean of Discipleship at Bearspaw Christian. “We recognize that the shifting realities that our families and students are facing require us to remain culturally and theologically relevant. The way we used to operate as a Christian school isn’t working any more, and so we’re listening to our families and adapting to meet their needs. The Feed the Need fundraiser is one way we’re doing this as it supports local and international causes, with the added benefit of teaching students to think beyond themselves and serve those in need.”
The funds raised are at $211,190 with the school open to donations until the end of the month. For more information visit bearspawschool.com
