At Stay Fit Mom, we spend the majority of our time teaching women the importance of fueling their bodies with enough food. We consider ourselves to be on the frontlines of preventative healthcare as we work tirelessly to provide clients results that go far beyond fitting into a bathing suit or a new pair of jeans. In a phrase, we feed people.
In the spring of this year, my family and I had the opportunity to serve at a meal packing event. Kids and adults of all ages came together to be the hands of a food packing assembly line for a common purpose: feeding people.
I was the oatmeal scooper. Milo (age 9) scooped the brown sugar. Siege (age 11) held the bag under the funnel. Chris, my husband, sealed the bag. Other children and adults on the end of the assembly line flattened the bags and packed them into boxes.
I watched as each of my kids processed this in their own way throughout the day.
“What do you mean people don’t have enough to eat?”
“How come their mom and dads can’t feed them?”
“How will these people get these meals?
“Is this all we can do?”
The conversations that followed were raw, vulnerable, and humbling. I knew this wasn’t ALL we could do.
There are big problems all over the world and the weight of that feels heavy, sometimes insurmountable, but NOT today. Today is the day that we can all do something that has a global effect, in a very tangible way.
Hope for the Hungry is a meal packing event on the Emerald Coast (Niceville) that raises money and packs food to meet the hunger needs for children in Haiti. In Haiti, 22% of children are chronically malnourished, 10% are underweight for their age, and 66% of children under the age of 5 suffer from anemia. Not only is the hunger crisis in Haiti real, but it is increasing at alarming rates. In a country of 11 million people, 4 million are in a desperate state of food emergency. Team hope provides thousands of children a daily meal at school. There are currently 73,000 children on a waiting list for a daily meal from Mission of Hope. Read more about the hunger crisis in Haiti and Mission of Hope HERE.
Once we heard these staggering statistics, we couldn’t unhear them. As a business that committed to feeding people years ago, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to feed these children now.
Hope for the Hungry; Emerald Coast had very humble beginnings. A 7 year old boy, Bryson, from Niceville, FL traveled on a mission trip with his parents to Haiti and just like my boys at the meal packing event, he came home with lots of questions and then Got. To. Work. The first year Bryson raised $6,000 for his first meal packing event which was enough money for 22,000 meals! Year two he raised enough money to pack 40,000 meals. Year three they packed 250,000 meals. This year, their goal is 300,000 meals! Every meal cost a little over 30 cents, which means their donation goal this year is $100,000.00. Watch Bryson’s story HERE.
While their goal sounds larger than life, at 30 cents a meal, the smallest donation goes a long way.
We can’t think of a more incredible community than our very own Stay Fit Mom sisterhood. We are MOTHERS. We are DO-ERS. Let’s FEED these children. There are two ways to help.
First DONATE HERE. Be sure to type “Stay Fit Mom” in the comments as we’d love to get a full donation count to tally and share with you.
If you are local to the Emerald Coast area, on August 6, 2022 join us at the Emerald Coast Convention Center. Come be the hands of the meal packing event assembly lines and bring your families along! No skills necessary. There will be jobs for all ages! If you’d like to volunteer, email Mahri Turner HERE.
We want to THANK YOU in advance for your commitment to feeding people right alongside us. What a privilege to know that we don’t have to sit back. While there are big problems in this world, we can all do something right now that will change the world for the better.
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