'Hope Filled Holiday': Volunteers pack 500,000 meals for hungry children

(KMSP) - More than 2,500 volunteers gathered to give back and take part in a “Hope Filled Holiday” at Feed My Starving Children. 

Volunteers hand-packed approximately 500,000 meals for hungry children around the world at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Friday and Saturday. 

The meals they packed will be enough to feed nearly 1,400 children in 70 different countries for one year. 

“I have this picture in my mind of these kids in Haiti or Panama or wherever that, you know, don’t have any food and suddenly get these meals delivered and [I] picture the smiles on their faces,” Mike Waldren, a volunteer said. “I can’t get enough thinking of these kids.” 

Last year the Minnesota-based charity welcomed more than one million volunteers to pack more than 284 million meals. They were able to feed more than 779,000 children daily for one year.