Meals from the Heartland and Lutheran Church of Hope are partnering with the citizens of Central Iowa to provide thousands of meals to people affected by Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti. Funds raised will pay for the purchase of ingredients and supplies volunteers will use to create prepackaged, nutritionally balanced meals for Haitians. More than a million meals have been distributed in Haiti through the Meals from the Heartland program in the last year. Due to the recent catastrophe, the organization is planning to send an additional 280,000 meals to the region immediately. Funds raised this month will be used to package additional meals for shipment to Haiti in February. Each gift of $25 will provide the product for 166 meals or feed approximately eight (8) children for a month! Lutheran Church of Hope will also provide the space for volunteers to package meals, which is done in an assembly line fashion with teams of 8-10 working in two-hour shifts. Packaging will begin February 22 and continue until funds are exhausted. Online registration for packaging will be open soon. Visit www.hopewdm.org/haiti to learn more. Meals from the Heartland, a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization, launched its first mass meal packaging effort for impoverished countries in September 2008. The first-time event attracted more than 12,000 volunteers to Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines, Iowa, to package an astounding 4,000,000 meals in just five days. The second event in September 2009 packaged more than 4,000,000 meals. Food packaged at the event has been sent to Haiti, Jamaica, South Africa, Nigeria, Mexico, and Israel. Support has also been provided to New Mexico and to homeless shelters in Iowa. To donate online to “Help for Haiti”, visit www.hopewdm.org/haiti. All gifts are tax-deductible. Checks can be sent to: Lutheran Church of Hope ATTN: Help for Haiti 925 Jordan Creek Parkway West Des Moines, IA 50266 If area organizations or churches are interested in joining the effort, please contact Meals from the Heartland at 877-HLP-MFTH or support@mealsfromtheheartland.org.