An investment in a child is an investment in the future.

For children in poor and developing countries, the future isn’t always a sure bet, especially when they’re starving and can’t get enough to eat.

However, people here can invest a bit of time or a few coins to give those children a chance when the Fort Dodge Mobile Pack Experience is held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 5 at the Community Christian School gymnasium, 2406 9 1/2 Ave. S.

The event is being organized by First Evangelical Free Church for the Feed My Starving Children organization, but the Rev. Scott Hatton said the positive global reach provided by the activity has appealed to the people and churches throughout the Fort Dodge area.

“People have responded extremely well,” he said. “We are very, very pleased. This has become a really great way to bring the community together.”

More than 500 volunteers have already signed up, Hatton said. Teams formed from among churches, businesses, sports groups and service clubs to fill all of the time slots in the planned work shifts. In an assembly line fashion, they will measure, weigh and seal bags of rice, dry vegetables and vitamin mixes to create boxed meals that can be reconstituted with hot water once they reach their final destinations.

“A former Cargill scientist put the recipe together to meet all the nutritional needs of the children,” Hatton said.

Hatton has estimated it will take 108,000 meals to fill the semi-truck trailer that will then carry the boxed meals to a warehouse where they will wait for distribution.

With all of the volunteers who have stepped forward, this shouldn’t be a problem, he said. But, the money to pay for the meals still remains an issue.

At 22 cents per meal, the cost for the food and materials adds up to nearly $24,000. However, a goal of raising $30,000 has been set to enable the project to benefit the Fort Dodge community, as well.

Plans are to keep $6,000 of the funds, Hatton said, and disburse it to three agencies that feed and help the hungry – the Beacon of Hope Shelter, the Salvation Army and the Lord’s Cupboard.

“We want to make a local impact, as well,” he said.

People interested in donating to help reach the goal can do so online at www.fundraising.fmsc.org/FtDodge, or they can send funds to the First Evangelical Free Church, 3058 10th Ave. N., Fort Dodge, Iowa 50501. Be sure to include a note or otherwise clearly designate the donation for the mobile pack experience.

The Mobile Pack Experience is one of the ways to support the mission of Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit Christian organization based in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. The organization distributes meals through missionary partnerships at orphanages, schools, clinics, refugee camps and malnourishment centers in countries affected by natural disasters, as well places with economic and food security difficulties. Feed My Starving Children has been active in nearly 70 different countries around the world since being founded in 1987.

Hatton and the First Evangelical Free Church first got involved with Feed My Starving Children through a field trip some of the youth took as a service project. They visited the offices and operations in the Twin Cities to learn more about the organization and its mission.

“It was such a good experience and we were really impressed with them,” Hatton said.

To get an even better understanding of how the operation functions, the church youth group worked at a packing event held in Chicago this past June. Once they had a bit of hands-on experience, Hatton said the church volunteered to stage a mobile packing event in Fort Dodge.

“From the beginning, we knew we had to start this,” he said, “but we wanted other churches to come along side and support the event with us. They have truly stepped up, and it’s been such a great experience working together.”