Perry Middle School students package 20,000 meals for Meals from the Heartland

Over 100 Perry Middle School students took turns dumping cups of soy, vegetables, vitamins and rice into bags on Thursday afternoon.

Those bags were then weighed, sealed and packed into boxes as part of an event with Meals from the Heartland. Over the course of 90 minutes, the Perry eighth-graders packaged up 20,000 meals.

This is the second year the middle school students have packaged meals.

“I teach a life prep course for eighth-graders. This is one of our end units, how to be a good community member and a good citizen,” said Chris Marks, technology instructor at Perry Middle School.

The students recently volunteered at Project Deliver the Love and have helped with cleaning up around the schools. The Meals from the Heartland event is the culminating event for the class.

Marks reached out to Raccoon Valley Bank before last year’s first annual packaging event. The bank sponsored the event and covered the cost of the meals.

“They really step up and they come over and help too,” Marks said of the bank employees who volunteer their time. “It’s awesome to have them work with the kids.”

When he reached out to see if the bank would be interested in sponsoring the event again this year, Jenna Hammond didn’t hesitate to say yes.

“As a community bank, we really like to sponsor things in the community and we really like to do things with the schools,” said Hammond, human resources director for Raccoon Valley Bank. “We really like to get out and do things like this for the community.”

Bank employees helped set up the tables and supervised the students as they packaged 20,000 meals on Thursday afternoon.

Ben Croghan, Hunger Fight manager with Meals from the Heartland, said many of the packaged meals go to schools in the United States and across the world. The schools feed children one meal a day for five days a week.

“Over the course of a year, that’s 260 meals for one person. So 20,000 meals would feed 77 people for an entire year,” Croghan said of the meals packaged by Perry eighth grade students. “It’s a pretty incredible event and a huge impact that they’re (making).”

“That’s what it’s about, giving them an opportunity to see what it feels like to really give,” Marks added.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Perry Middle School students package 20,000 meals for Meals from the Heartland