Northfield Church in Fort Dodge had already planned this meal packing event for Wednesday evening before the storm was forecast.

The Rev. Jeremy Munden, youth and family pastor, said thankfully, the storm had mostly passed by the time they all headed to the church.

“We had a little bit of wind up here for about 10 minutes or so and it seemed a little hairy, but we never lost power and we were supposed to start at 6:30 or so,” he said. “The storm was over by about then. Probably two-thirds of the people that originally signed up to do it came out and did it after the storms had blown through.”

The meals they packed will go to Lifeline Christian Mission’s Haiti location.

“Each bag we pack has four meals, our size meals, but people will stretch those. It’s amazing how far they can stretch a little bag of food down there,” said Munden.

Each meal packed consists of rice, soy protein, dehydrated vegetables, and vitamin fortification. Munden said he and several others from the church have had the chance to visit Haiti on several occasions and even hand out the meals.

“It was kind of neat to be able to pack them here and then you get the chance to unpack them when you’re down there visiting the country,” he said.

Munden has visited Haiti at least 10 times, he said, and has developed a passion for helping the country.

“There’s a lot of political unrest and just recovering from natural disasters. What Lifeline does is they do the food packing events at churches, pretty much around the country. Then the meals go on a pallet, in the shipping container and sent down there pretty quick. They go directly from the states to Haiti right to the mission,” said Munden. “They have a school at the mission and they feed the children during the school day. They have to bring their own bowl, but the school provides lunch.”

Munden first visited Haiti in 2011 with a church in Indianapolis.

“The first few trips were a lot of picking up after the hurricane, a lot of outreach with food and clothes, and working around the church and the mission. After a couple trips, I had the chance to begin seminary classes and move into ministry full time so I made that shift and ended up here in Fort Dodge,” he said.

“I’ve had the chance to go back down and teach at the Bible college down there. Something just grabbed ahold of me when I went down there and got to know the people and saw the situation. I fell in love with building houses and that sort of thing. It’s one of those things I did once and I knew I had to come back.”