A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2017
COMMUNITY
FFA powers 40,000 mac and cheese meal donations
By JADE MCDOWELL
Staff Writer
Four months of fundrais-
ing and a morning’s worth
of elbow grease from stu-
dents of local FFA chapters
added 40,000 meals to local
food banks Saturday.
“It really pumps you up
to know you made an im-
pact,” said Hannah Walker,
a junior at Hermiston High
School. She was one of the
blue-shirted leaders at the
school directing teams of
students measuring out and
packaging meals of forti-
fied macaroni and cheese,
paid for by $10,000 the
students raised themselves
from local businesses and
organizations.
Walker and classmate
Reed Middleton brought the
idea to Hermiston from a na-
tional FFA leadership confer-
ence in Washington, D.C.
“Going to that kind of
thing lights a fire under
you,” Middleton said. “You
say, ‘This world needs help.
What can I do?’ And now
here we are with $10,000
and 40,000 meals.”
The service project was
part of a national program
called Meals of Hope,
which helps organizations
around the country host
food-packaging events like
the one on Saturday. Mid-
dleton and Walker said
they helped package food
for Meals of Hope in D.C.
as part of the conference,
and decided then that they
wanted to do a similar event
back home.
They emailed back
and forth with Meals of
Hope and convinced their
own FFA chapter and six
more in the area (Pendle-
ton, Echo, Heppner, Ione,
Weston-McEwen and Mil-
ton-Freewater) to join in
their fundraising efforts.
They ended up with enough
cash for 40,000 meals, and
the Hermiston FFA kicked
in some extra money for
T-shirts with names of
sponsors who donated.
The project culminat-
STAFF PHOTOS BY E.J. HARRIS
Kord Dickenson, 6, of Heppner scoops out excess macaroni for packets of fortified macaroni and cheese Saturday during the
Meals of Hope food drive in Hermiston.
ed in Saturday’s two-hour
event, where about 85 stu-
dents from Umatilla and
Morrow counties gathered
at Hermiston High School
with bulk boxes of macaro-
ni noodles, cheese powder
and soybean protein to be
packaged into individual
meals roughly the size of
a store-bought box of mac-
aroni and cheese, and then
placed into packs of 36
meals for easy transport.
The mood was energetic
and upbeat. Students sang
along to music pumping
through the room, made up
chants to announce each
box’s completion and com-
peted with their neighbors
to fill the most boxes.
Austin Mota, a soph-
omore at Pendleton High
School, said things had
been “pretty chill” packing
boxes and he was glad he
came.
“I really just like helping
Hermiston junior Deven Hofbauer places labels on boxes of macaroni and cheese..Saturday.
out in the community,” he
said. “I don’t mind volun-
teering.”
Mildred Moreno, a
freshman from Hermiston
High School, said she was
glad the teams of students
were mixed between multi-
ple chapters so that every-
one got to talk with students
from others schools.
“The teamwork was
fun,” she said. “I got to
know some people I didn’t
know from Echo.”
According to Depart-
ment of Human Services
data from 2015, 21 percent
of Umatilla County resi-
dents are receiving food
stamps from the govern-
ment through SNAP (Sup-
plemental Nutrition Assis-
tance Program). Another
report shows 1,250 families
in Morrow County were re-
ceiving SNAP benefits in
2014.
Hermiston FFA chapter
advisor Leah Smith said
fighting hunger is a cause
that FFA students can un-
derstand, given the number
of students in area schools
who often go hungry.
“People know,” she said.
“... Kids don’t necessarily
want to point out that maybe
their friend doesn’t have a lot.
Who knows? Maybe some
of this food will go to some
of these kids. But they’re all
here working together.”
The food was bound for
CAPECO in Pendleton,
which will distribute some
directly to needy families
and send the rest to other
local food banks like the
Agape House in Hermiston.
CAPECO
distributes
about 1.2 million pounds
of food a year, while the
Agape House’s emergen-
cy food box program as-
sists about 900 people each
month in getting through
the last few days of the
month and sends home a
backpack full of food each
weekend to about 150 stu-
dents in the area. Stanfield’s
food bank serves 120 to 150
people a month.
After the last meal was
packaged, the volunteer
force turned their atten-
tion to wiping down ta-
bles, sweeping up noodles
and breaking down boxes.
Walker and Reed said they
were thrilled to see the proj-
ect finally come to pass after
months of working on it.
“I’m excited,” Reed
said.
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