Meal Packaging with Children of the Nations

This week, the kids and I participated in meal packaging for an organization called Children of the Nations (COTN). It was a great way to allow the kids to be hands-on in doing something to care for others in need. The event was organized by a local homeschool group and prior to this, I had not heard of COTN. Basically, the way it worked was that our group packaged the number of meals that we raised money for. As a group, $2500 was raised, and each meal costs about 25 cents. So, we were able to package roughly 10,000 meals, box them, and get them ready to be shipped. Each meal consists of lentils, spice, chicken (dried powder form), and rice, and is fortified with vitamins and nutrients. Any size group can organize the same thing, but they encourage each group to raise enough to package at least $500 worth of meals. The kids enjoyed doing it, and so I was thinking that it could be a good birthday party idea. Kids could donate toward the meals being packaged, rather than giving gifts, and then work together to package the meals. Like I said, it was great for the kids to be able to be hands-on and see a little bit of the impact that they can have. Children of the Nations states that its goal is to "raise children who transform nations." They provide holistic care to children in various parts of Africa and the Dominican Republic through educational programs, health care, children's homes, etc. You can check them out at http://www.cotni.org/.