Ten Thousand miles

Today’s blog is from Brandon Faulkner, swh program director

During my last ten years of managing meal packing programs, I’ve had a lot of questions about where we get ingredients and what happens after the meals are packed. A lot of things have to go right to hold a packing event and get food to its final destination…

It starts with a seed of faith. Our sponsoring groups, supporters, and volunteers faithfully give of their time and resources so we can provide for people they may never meet in a far off land they may never visit.

Second, it starts with a literal seed. Farmers throughout the US provide us with vegetables, rice and soybeans. American manufacturers make our vitamin powder, boxes and bags. Thanks to the efforts of many people, raw ingredients and supplies arrive at our warehouse for storage to then timely usage at packing events.

Once the meals are packed, the next leg of the journey begins with loading a shipping container to be picked up from our warehouse. It is then transported to port where the container is loaded onto a huge cargo ship where it spends a couple of weeks on the ocean before arriving in the port of Corinto, Nicaragua. Upon arrival, the food goes through customs inspections before transport to a warehouse in Managua where it is picked up by our partner, Samaritan's International to go to their facility.  Once in the SI warehouse, the meals are distributed at multiple sites to 60-100,000 people who rely on our food weekly.

So, as you can see, by the time the ingredients get from seed to the mouths of hungry children and their families, the meals have been through a lot and traveled a great distance! Thank you to all who make this happen.