Help Package Meals for the 2020 Annual Hunger Fight

For the past 12 years, Meals from the Heartland has held a four-day event in early September — the Annual Hunger Fight. This event is usually held at Hy-Vee Hall in Downtown Des Moines (DSM), but this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Annual Hunger Fight event will look a little different.

Meals from the Heartland’s mission is to feed starving children around the world. We work year-round to do that, of course, but every year during one long weekend in late August/early September we mobilize approximately 10,000 volunteers at Hy-Vee Hall to package more than 4 million meals during our Annual Hunger Fight.

 The Annual Hunger Fight in 2020

In 2020, the 13th Annual Hunger Fight will package meals in a safe, socially distanced manner over the course of three weeks in August and September instead of the usual long weekend format of years past. Meals from the Heartland is seeking 2,500 volunteers to register in the coming days in order to continue its commitment to feed starving children.

With this new packaging procedure, the organization has increased its goal from 4 million meals during the normal extended weekend Hunger Fight to packaging 6 million meals during the new three-week event. It can be done with the help of the DSM community.

Experts have estimated that the number of children going hungry due to the pandemic could quadruple. It is the goal of Meals from the Heartland, with the help of our incredible sponsors — Hy-Vee, Wells Fargo, Corteva, John Deere and Kreg Tool — to package meals faster than ever before for the following countries in need:

• Burkina Faso
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Nicaragua
• Philippines
• Togo

Volunteer Today

Volunteer for a two-hour shift between August 24 and September 12, 2020 at the Patty Cownie Packaging Center at 357 Lincoln Street in West Des Moines. Sign up individually or with your business, church or civic group. Health and safety procedures will be followed including requiring masks and gloves be worn, limiting the number of packagers at each table and increasing cleaning and sanitizing between each shift.

To see what to expect during this year’s Annual Hunger Fight, click here.

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