Craig Brandt an Everyday Hero with Feed My Starving Children

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” — Romans 12:6–8

I realized early in life that I was happiest when I was serving. This led me to seek positions that allowed me to serve. From wait staff to Orderly to Nursing.
 
As a former Registered Nurse, I have witnessed the deleterious effects of poor nutrition and malnutrition. When I discovered that I could make a difference in children’s lives by the simple act of packing meals that would then be sent to those same children and then that the organization (FMSC) has a 99.8% success rate of getting the meals that I helped to pack to get to those kids.

As a member of your Mission’s Team I coordinate the scheduling of volunteers who pack meals from St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Bloomington. My wife and I also participate in each scheduled packing session – putting our sweat equity into each session. I am also the St. Luke’s point of contact for FMSC, so I forward their email and mailings to the office to share with you.
 
Logistically speaking each bag packed equals six one cup meals. There are 36 bags per box which is the same as 216 meals per box. There are 36 boxes to each pallet which equals 7,776 meals per pallet.

So far this year we have participated in eight sessions. Packing 137,520 meals, feeding 490 children. Breaking down St. Luke’s participation, we supplied 148 volunteers and we packed 48,191 meals, or 132.1 children fed for a year.
 
We packed for Children in Malawi, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Mozambique and Panama.

We have three sessions currently in need of Volunteers:
1.     Saturday, September 16th starting at 9:00 AM - 10:45 AM. (This is Roger Lyson’s 70th Birthday and we are hoping for one Volunteer for each year of life, so far, he’s only 13… The Join Code is MYB9KG.
2.     Monday, October 16th starting at 7:00 PM - 8:45 PM.This is World Food Day and there is a $15,000.00 Matching Gift available for each session on this day. World Food Day is a designation from the UN and there is a bit more information about it to follow. The Join Code is L35VXZ.
3.     Tuesday, October 31st starting at 7:00 PM - 8:45 PM. Yes, this is Halloween. Kim and I thought about it and have decided that in lieu of staying home and passing out candy to kids we don’t know, we would rather pack nutritious meals for children we don’t know! We know this might not be popular right now, but we did it last year so it’s going to be our new tradition. Besides, if you participate in Trunk or Treat – then maybe you’ve have had your fill! The Join Code is 7X7D63.

Four Ways to Sign up:
1.     As always, put your name and children’s name and age (5-18) on the back of the yellow card and the Church Office will forward this information to me so I can sign you up.
2.     Go to: http://www.fmsc.org/join-group?joincode=MYB9KG (This is Septembers Code!)
3.     Text me at 612-799-7561 with the Volunteers Names and ages.
4.     E-mail me at [email protected] with the Volunteers Names and ages.

From Feed My Starving Children Web Site:
 Food insecurity in the Caribbean has taken a sharp turn upward since 2020. Increasing food prices are an especially heavy burden in a region where 30% of the population lives in poverty.
Natural disasters are arguably the biggest threat to the Caribbean’s food security. In fact, a single disaster can cause losses to a country totaling 200% of their GDP. Droughts, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and landslides cause an annual $3 billion of damage and other losses.
By all measures, Haiti is the hungriest country in the Caribbean — and one of the hungriest places on the planet. Our partners in Haiti are reporting the worst situation they’ve ever seen. A new spike in violence and a cholera outbreak have intensified already-severe conditions. In Port-au-Prince, people are facing famine-like conditions. And, across the nation, food shortages prove devastating.

FMSC food is distributed by our network of partners across the Caribbean. Since 2009, FMSC has sent more than 1.3 billion meals to the Caribbean. This food has been used to support the work of dozens of our partners. This work includes:
·        Clean water projects
·        Sustainable agriculture
·        Microenterprise initiatives

From the World Food Day Web Site:
 
Water is essential to life on Earth. It makes up over 50% of our bodies and covers about 71% of the Earth's surface. Only 2.5% of water is fresh, suitable for drinking, agriculture, and most industrial uses. Water is a driving force for people, economies and nature and the foundation of our food. Indeed, agriculture accounts for 72% of global freshwater withdrawals, but like all natural resources, fresh water is not infinite.  
Rapid population growth, urbanization, economic development, and climate change are putting the planet’s water resources under increasing stress. At the same time, freshwater resources per person have declined 20% in the past decades and water availability and quality are deteriorating fast due to decades of poor use and management, over extraction of groundwater, pollution and climate change. We risk stretching this precious resource to a point of no return. 

Today, 2.4 billion people live in water-stressed countries. Many are smallholder farmers who already struggle to meet their daily needs, particularly women, Indigenous Peoples, migrants, and refugees. Competition for this priceless resource is increasing as water scarcity becomes an ever-increasing cause of conflict.  

Around 600 million people who depend, at least partially, on aquatic food systems for a living are suffering the effects of pollution, ecosystem degradation, unsustainable practices and climate change.

​From the FMSC Web site: 12 verses to guide your mercy-focused prayer
Each of the 12 Scripture passages below focuses on mercy. A question for meditation follows each passage. You may choose to use the passages one at a time throughout the day, perhaps hourly, or all at once, or whatever works for you.

1. “Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.” — Psalm 25:6 Where in my life story have I especially experienced the mercy of God?
2. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” -- Psalm 51:1 For what moral failures do I ask God for mercy today?
3. “Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.” — Psalm 119:77 How is my life today enriched by God’s mercy, especially in God’s Word?
4. “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end.” —Lamentations 3:22 How steady and consistent in my own life are the emotion and the action of showing mercy?
5. “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” — Micah 6:8 How deeply do I love showing mercy to others?
6. “[Jesus said,] ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.’” — Matthew 5:7 What mercies of God have I received as I show mercy toward the hungry?
7. “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy.” — Luke 1:53-54 How will I respond to God for remembering His mercy toward His hungry children?
8. “[Jesus said,) ‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’” — Luke 10:37 What specifically do Jesus’ words, “You go, and do likewise,” mean for me?
9. “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” — Romans 12:6–8 How cheerful am I in my acts of mercy on behalf of the hungry?
10. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” — Hebrews 4:16 How confident am I that God’s mercy will always be there for me and for the hungry?
11. “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” — James 2:13 Where have I seen this precept at work in my life?  
12. “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” — James 3:17 In what ways is showing mercy a sign of wisdom?

From the FMSC Web site: 12 verses to guide your mercy-focused prayer
Each of the 12 Scripture passages below focuses on mercy. A question for meditation follows each passage. You may choose to use the passages one at a time throughout the day, perhaps hourly, or all at once, or whatever works for you.
From the FMSC Web site: 12 verses to guide your mercy-focused prayer
Each of the 12 Scripture passages below focuses on mercy. A question for meditation follows each passage. You may choose to use the passages one at a time throughout the day, perhaps hourly, or all at once, or whatever works for you.