From left, Jason Wittak and Nichole Chang stand in front of a truck owned by Feed My Starving Children. The two are co-chairs of a food packing event that will take place at Egan Company in Champlin
Feb. 19-23. DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

A dream for feeding the hungry was about to die in December 2015. But, on the day before Christmas that year, a surprise gift came that has led to the packing of almost 6 million meals in the northwest Twin Cities area for starving children around the world.

Roxanne Smith was the social justice director for St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove at the time. Her parish had been involved in packing food for Feed My Starving Children, a local relief agency founded in 1987 that packs and delivers nutritious food to young people in countries ravaged by hunger.
Smith had served on its board in the 1990s, so she dove in when an employee of FMSC called her about doing a large mobile packing event in the northwest suburbs that would bring in churches, businesses and community member.

In the spring of 2015, she met with several church leaders in the area, including Nichole Chang, a faith formation coordinator at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park. They all agreed to do it.

The hard part was finding a place to do it. The two women formed a core leadership team, then began working with Dave Gunnlaugsson, mobile pack development adviser for FMSC. He recruited another member of the team, Jason Wittak, director of social justice and volunteer engagement at St. Joseph in New Hope. The two men searched for places, but none was suitable.

“It was the day before Christmas,” Gunnlaugsson said, “and I was going to just cancel the whole idea if we didn’t find space by the end of the year.”

That day, a friend called him with news of a possible facility — a warehouse in Champlin owned by Egan Company. The friend had contacted the company and received a positive response. Gunnlaugsson went there that day and forged an agreement.

He called it “one of the best Christmas presents we’ve gotten in a long time at FMSC.”
The giver of that gift, ultimately, was Egan CEO Duane Hendricks, who happens to be a member of St. Joseph the Worker. He said he was “super excited” to be part of it and provide the space, which is about 20,000 square feet.

Hendricks and his company have been the hosts every year since. The event is called Northwest Metro Mobilepack, with 1.78 million meals packed the first year and more than 1 million a year since. That makes it one of the largest mobile packing events in the country, Gunnlaugsson said. This year’s event takes place Feb. 19-23, with several two-hour packing shifts each day. Volunteers are still needed. With 5.9 million meals packed in four years, Wittak said he hopes to reach the 7 million mark this year.

In addition to its size, what makes this event unique, Gunnlaugsson said, is the Catholic leadership. Of the four local churches partnering to put on the event, three of them are Catholic. The fourth is Lord of Life Lutheran.

As the event has grown, Catholic schools such as Benilde-St. Margaret’s in St. Louis Park, De La Salle in Minneapolis and Providence Academy in Plymouth have provided volunteers for meal packing, along with other parishes in the area such as St. Gerard Majella in Brooklyn Park. Local businesses in addition to Egan have stepped in, too, plus other faith communities. The event has drawn up to 5,800 volunteers a year, with a maximum capacity of 6,400 to cover the two-hour packing shifts, plus setup and take-down.

Seeing so many people from so many different churches, schools, businesses and organizations working together is especially gratifying, Chang said.

“I think it shows that every person has a desire to do good,” she said. “They want to do good for other people, they want the best for the world and they want to help out where they can. … When you think about how many kids you can feed for the year when you (pack) a million meals, that’s really powerful.”

For some volunteers, it’s a multi-generational effort. Smith has brought in her husband, Gerry, their two adult sons and some of their five grandchildren. Hendricks, the Egan CEO, likewise, has brought in family members.

“It’s all inspired by my faith,” he said. “What the good Lord teaches is about believing and about giving back and helping others and sharing. And, this (event) is just about doing it at a bigger level. As a leader in the company, it’s also my role to help instill that in our business — to be able to share and give back and help others.”

From start to finish, about 200 Egan employees work alongside event volunteers, beginning with clearing out the space every year beforehand and ending with cleanup. Event leaders note that Hendricks can be seen pushing a broom when it’s over, and he jumps in to do some packing. One of the packing shifts is made up entirely of Egan employees.

Smith said a highlight for her has been seeing the response of her own parishioners. One year, St. Joseph the Worker parishioners staffed an entire shift and wore maroon T-shirts made for the occasion to create solidarity.

“It was so life-giving for me to see our community come together as a huge group like that and go out and do this and know that we were going to feed starving children, which is part of the Gospel calling,” she said. “From my little grandkids to elderly seniors in their 80s, we were all … working together for the same goal — to make sure that kids didn’t have to go hungry. It was just a beautiful experience.”

The Northwest Metro Mobilepack event needs more volunteers, plus donations to pay for food that is packed. To volunteer, visit give.fmsc.org/northwest.