Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Bergeron focused on food relief

Dayton Daily News
May 21, 2009

Bergeron focused on food relief
The non-profit charity also deals with adoptions, orphan care, foster care and humanitarian relief.

By Katherine Ullmer
Staff Writer

DAYTON — Larry Bergeron, former pastor of Hope Church in Mason, now works part-time as a hospice chaplain between Dayton and Cincinnati to support his family.

But his passion is his nonprofit charity, A Child’s Hope International, which focuses on adoptions, orphan care, foster care, and humanitarian relief.

Part of that relief is the international campaign called Kids Against Hunger. Richard Proudfit, an entrepreneur in New Hope, Minn., started Kids Against Hunger in March, 1999. Eighteen states now have satellite food packaging sites. Ohio has satellite offices in Dayton and West Chester Twp.

The West Chester Twp. satellite, located in a warehouse of the Berean Christian Stores at Exit 19 along Interstate 75, serves the Cincinnati to Dayton area. It has fed children in Appalachia, Wilmington, Africa (44 tons of food shipped) and Haiti, Bergeron said.

Bob Dixon, 45, an ordained Baptist minister/general contractor, works the regional food packaging division of Kids Against Hunger out of a small area of a 65,000 square-foot building donated by Advanced Machinery, at 2412 N. Gettysburg Ave.

“I’ve always had a need to help people,” Dixon said.

A general contractor, he was ordained at the Second Baptist Church in Piqua in 2004.

He learned about Kids Against Hunger about a year ago from “a fellow going back to Uganda.” Proudfit, the founder of Kids Against Hunger, helped him set up his operation.

They’ve had donations from churches, Walmart, Meijer and private companies to pay for food packet ingredients, he said.

Dixon said they need donations of money and materials to repair leaks in the roof and renovate other parts of the building for more space. They also need volunteers/organizations to help hand package the food.

Twice a month they package food packets with a specially formulated mixture of white rice, fortified crushed soy, dehydrated vegetables and a chicken-flavored 21 mineral/vitamin powder, he said. One package can provide six nutritionally-complete servings at a cost of only 23 cents per serving.

They can bring a mobile packaging unit with supplies to a school or church, Dixon said.

Thus far they have packaged and shipped 100,000 packages to Haiti and 100,000 to Swaziland, Africa, he said.

They hope to fill another 100,000 packages to put in Ohio food pantries so people laid off from work can be sure of well-balanced meals. He’s been talking with Catholic Social Services about that project, he said.

Students from The Mound Street Academy on Washington Street, and Youth Works at the Dayton Job Center helped out recently, and a group of Boy Scouts from Englewood packaged food May 9, he said.

He’s been trying to get his message out about the program by going to a different church each weekend and also has talked to the Red Cross, Dayton’s mayor, and various organizations.

He can be reached by calling (937) 567-4035 or by e-mail at Bob@kids
againsthunger.com.

Story can be found here.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

KAH & Epiphany United Methodist in the news!

Help Epiphany feed thousands on Sunday afternoon

MIAMI TOWNSHIP, OHIO – You can help feed thousands of children if you come to Epiphany United Methodist this Sunday afternoon. Epiphany's Serving Gladly Committee will bring all of the supplies and equipment to the church and turn it into a “packaging satellite” for one afternoon. It is to aid the delivery of a specially formulated rice-soy casserole to starving children and their families in the USA and around the world. One package provides six nutritionally-complete servings.

An assembly line will be formed to measure and place all of the ingredients in packages. Church members have been traveling to the West Chester Kids Against Hunger warehouse to participate, and during their last work day there, they packed 14,000 meals.

The meal ingredients are formulated by food scientists to provide a rich source of easily digestible protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins needed by an undernourished child’s body.

The food is also acceptable to the broad diversity of ethnic tastes and religious differences around the world. The food offers all 9 of the essential amino acids required for complete nutrition, something that can’t be said about other typical food relief sources such as rice or Kids-Against-Hunger-3 beans alone. It is also very simple to prepare, requiring only 6 cups of boiling water to make a complete meal.

The public is invited and encouraged to lend a hand and learn more about the mission of Kids Against Hunger.
Kid’s Against Hunger at Epiphany
April 19
1-3:00 PM
http://www.epiphanyumc.org

Original story can be found here.

Monday, May 18, 2009

May 16, 2009

What a great day at the "factory" last Saturday!

- 49,342 meals were packed for the Jean R. Cadet Restavec Foundation (almost 7 pallets in one day!)
- Crossroads Community Church brought 50 volunteers as part of their Go Cincinnati event
- For the first time, we had an on site bake sale and generated $108 to help pay for all the ingredients used in the day's packing! Thank you to Cynthia, Susan and everyone who helped!
- The Sack Slavery campaign has already netted $1000 for this pack
- The Cincinnati Enquirer was on site taking pictures

All the food this month will go to the work in Haiti with The Restavec Foundation, one more pack this month on May 30.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Training Video - take 1

Check out our first attempt at a training video! Narrative and/or audio to follow, but thought I would share this version in the meantime. Hope it helps!

Monday, May 11, 2009

May 2, 2009

Thanks to all our May 2 volunteer packers!

Total production on May 2 was 32,140 meals which brings our total production to 1,238,882 meals. We also made local shipments on Saturday to Serve City (Hamilton) and Foundation Builders (West Chester).

On May 2, we also made a shipment of 15 pallets to KAH Dayton which will finish out the two 40' ship containers going to Swaziland. KAH Cincinnati has contributed 299,376 meals to the Swaziland shipment. The shipment going to Swaziland will total 555,984 meals (78 pallets). One pallet will contain clothing.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

“From the Pit to the Palace”

Watch the Biblical Joseph go from the pit to the palace!!!

The Bethany United Methodist Children’s Choir and a full drama cast will present:

“From the Pit to the Palace”

Dinner Theater Performance in the Bethany UM Church Family Life Center

6388 Cincinnati Dayton Road
Liberty Township, Ohio 45044

Saturday, May 16
Dinner: 6:00 p.m. Performance: 7:00 p.m.

To reserve your tickets, call the church office 777-4448 by Friday, May 15!!!! (Leaving a message by THURSDAY will also work.)

Tickets cost $8/adult, $4/child 10 & under, $25/family maximum.

The money raised from this event will go to Kids Against Hunger.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Center Pointe's Student Ministry

Such a great idea from Center Pointe Christian Church's Student Minister, Steve Poston...
I wanted to ask you how much it costs you for one of the boxes that you use to ship the food packs? The reason is that our student ministry is going to sort of adopt Kids Against Hunger as a ministry that we support....What we're going to do is use the 3 empty boxes that I got from you when my group came and use them as a giving display. Students will be able to come in and give an offering in the box anytime they come to our programs. Every time we get $54, we'll tell them they just bought another box of food and we'll bring that money to you. What I would like to do is for every box of food we fund, I want to buy an empty box from you so that we can build a display wall to show as visual for what they are accomplishing.
After 3 months of this Student Ministry program, here's another update from Steve....
It’s been very successful so far. We place it the 3 box pyramid giving display on the front of our student center stage and leave it there. And then build the wall of boxes on the side of the stage. So far, 3 months, we have seen our students contribute over $600 and fund 11 boxes of food! Every time we get enough for a box, we send it and add a new box to our wall. Each time, we mention the total number of meals that we’ve provided and the number of kids that feeds for a year, it makes the impact of their actions very tangible and understandable.
Thank you to everyone involved with the Student Ministry at Center Pointe Christian Church! You are making a substantial difference in the lives of children around the world!

If your church or youth group would like to participate in the same program, please contact us at: KAH@achildshopeintl.org