歪歪漫画

BAGLEY -- Everyone at the tableful of students and staff from Voyageurs Expeditionary 歪歪漫画 had a job to do.

One person measured and poured rice into a packet -- six meals -- and held the opening out for a second to seal it shut. Others packed the packet into a box with 35 more -- 216 meals -- and loaded onto a pallet with 35 other identical boxes -- 7,776 meals -- and the pallet was wheeled next to a row of others ready to be loaded onto a waiting truck.

The students and staff were just one table at the Bagley Hockey Arena packing boxes and boxes of food for Feed My Starving Children, a Christian nonprofit that hoped to pack almost 125,000 meals on Tuesday. Each table let out a raucous cheer when they finished a box of the 鈥淢annaPack鈥� rice meals, and some students bounced in excitement when organizers challenged the volunteers to finish at least three boxes in ten minutes. Bon Jovi blared through the arena loudspeakers.

鈥淚 like helping out,鈥� said Destiny Stillday, an eighth-grader at the Bemidji-area charter school, which emphasizes service-learning projects. 鈥淚t helps people that don't have it, and that's kind of what I'm all about, is helping people that need it.鈥�

Students from Bagley 歪歪漫画 District, TrekNorth charter school, and Voyageurs all pitched in on morning and afternoon shifts at the arena.

Each meal costs 22-23 cents, said organizer Michael Davis, who helped raise about $29,000 for Tuesday鈥檚 event. Thousands of children starve every day across the world, he said.

鈥淲e talk about this being a mission trip in your own town because you're serving people all around the world while never really having to leave the town,鈥� said Manny Kuphal, a senior event supervisor. 鈥淧eople start to see the impact that they can have by volunteering.鈥�

All of the meals packed in Bagley will head to a warehouse in Eagan, Minnesota, and then overseas -- Kuphal said Feed My Starving Children staff are still determining the meals鈥� final destination.

But Davis is already working on the next meal-packing event. Anyone who wants to donate to it should call (218) 766-8176.

1/2: Haidyn Friborg, 10, a student at FHL Academy, begins to fill a bag of rice Tuesday during the Feed My Starving Children food packing event at the Bagley Hockey Arena. (Maggi Stivers | Bemidji Pioneer)

2/2: The Feed My Starving Children food packing event filled the Bagley Hockey Arena on Tuesday afternoon. (Maggi Stivers | Bemidji Pioneer)