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Feed My Starving Children

Elizabeth Schneider | Published on 2/4/2021

Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) believes hope starts with food. As a Christian nonprofit, FMSC is dedicated to seeing every child whole in body and spirit. FMSC offers volunteers a one-of-a-kind experience where volunteers hand-pack rice, soy, dried vegetables and a nutritionally complete blend of vitamins and minerals into bags which are then sealed, boxed, placed on pallets and shipped to our incredible partners working hard to reach the neediest children around the world.

On March 13, 2020, in response to COVID-19, Feed My Starving Children was forced to close its doors to its usual 1.4 million volunteers. After months of putting volunteer meal-packing on pause, FMSC welcomed back volunteers in August, 2020, introducing new COVID-19 protocols and procedures like required volunteer registration prior to coming in to pack, mandatory mask wearing and socially distanced meal-packing stations. 


While our volunteers are excited to be back in the packing room and being involved again, FMSC does look a little different. Typically, FMSC would see a lot of schools and corporate groups coming in to volunteer as team-building opportunities or ways to learn about giving back to others. However, now that many are working from home or doing online learning, we are seeing more families or smaller groups coming in to volunteer, which is a new mix of volunteers than normal.  

Our packing rooms are at lower volunteer capacities due to our new socially distance packing model, which means that while volunteers are returning, we’re seeing less volunteers every day than we were pre-COVID. Currently, we’re at about 30% capacity at each site based on CDC guidelines. 

Interested in volunteering with FMSC? We’d love for you to join us and pack life-giving meals for children around the world. Sign up to volunteer and review our COVID-19 protocols at www.fmsc.org/get-involved/volunteer. Through volunteering at FMSC, you’ll get the chance to impact hundreds of kids in just two hours per packing shift. You’ll experience what it’s like to make a tangible difference today.