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Harvest Land Co-op, FFA chapters, churches and community groups pull off another successful humanitarian event. Group packs meals for the hungry here and abroad.

Tom Bechman 1, Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

March 22, 2016

2 Min Read

If anyone would step forward to roll up their sleeves and help feed the hungry, you would think it would be farm and ag people. After all, they are the original environmentalists, the first stewards of the soil and the people who raise the food. And you would be right on all counts.

For the fifth year in a row, a large number of volunteers in east-central Indiana gathered on a Saturday morning to pack meals that will be sent to hungry people both right here, and to hungry people abroad. It’s the Pack Away Hunger event, now in its fifth year, operated by a non-profit organization.

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Twenty-three churches, 9 FFA chapters, a number of community organizations from various counties and employees and family members from Harvest Land Co-op gathered in the cafeteria at Hagerstown High School to pact meals.

Melissa Lovett, and FFA advisor, brought her students from Shenandoah High School in Henry County to help. Other advisors also brought FFA members to help, and be part of something bigger than themselves.

This year 162,216 meals were packed to be distributed, reports Lindsay Sankey, communications specialist for Harvest Land Co-op. It brings the total for meals packed and distributed over the five years fo the event to more than half a million. The exact total is 593,676. This year’s volunteers packed nearly 1,800 more meals than were packed at the same event one year ago.

Where do these meals that are packed go? Sankay says many go to Gleaner’s Midwest Food Bank. Others go to eleven more local food pantries, which receive between 1,000 and 10,000 meals each, depending upon the size of the area they cover.

Part of the meals will be shipped to Guatemala through Mission  Guatemala, an effort to feed hungry people there. You can learn more about this effort at missionguatemala.com.

About the Author(s)

Tom Bechman 1

Editor, Indiana Prairie Farm

Tom Bechman is an important cog in the Farm Progress machinery. In addition to serving as editor of Indiana Prairie Farmer, Tom is nationally known for his coverage of Midwest agronomy, conservation, no-till farming, farm management, farm safety, high-tech farming and personal property tax relief. His byline appears monthly in many of the 18 state and regional farm magazines published by Farm Progress.

"I consider it my responsibility and opportunity as a farm magazine editor to supply useful information that will help today's farm families survive and thrive," the veteran editor says.

Tom graduated from Whiteland (Ind.) High School, earned his B.S. in animal science and agricultural education from Purdue University in 1975 and an M.S. in dairy nutrition two years later. He first joined the magazine as a field editor in 1981 after four years as a vocational agriculture teacher.

Tom enjoys interacting with farm families, university specialists and industry leaders, gathering and sifting through loads of information available in agriculture today. "Whenever I find a new idea or a new thought that could either improve someone's life or their income, I consider it a personal challenge to discover how to present it in the most useful form, " he says.

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