Fun with Food.

Friday and Saturday the local National Guard Armory building was home to a "Pack-a-Thon" sponsored by Colleton County based charitable organization Haiti Under God. Teams of 17 people per team trekked to the armory to assemble ready-to-boil "one pot meal" bags consisting of rice, soy, vitamins and veggies, and pack them into Haiti-bound crates. St. Jude's team was one of six teams at the Saturday Noon to Two shift.

First, we had to get orientated. The crowed gathered just past some already assembled boxes to learn the procedure. Lots of kind souls showed up to share in the fun. In addition to the people to assemble and pack the food, each team had to pony-up more than a thousand dollars to pay for the shipping and other costs associated with getting it to the people in Haiti who need it.

There are Methodists in this madness! Newly elected Walterboro City Councilman Bobby Bonds and his family joined other members from his church to help out. Note the hair-nets. Bobby probably didn't mind it so much, but son Jack looks a little less enthralled by this sartorially un-splendid, but necessary, accessory...

...but St. Jude's Susan McConnell and Tom Lohr know how to rock a hair-net!

Then the fun begins. Boxes are assembled; labels applied to bags; bins of rice, soy, vitamin and veggies are brought to the tables; scoops of the various ingredients are dumped into funnels and into bags, sealed, and weighed; the bags are packed into boxes, which are marked by table and facility where the packing is done;

the boxes are weighed, taped shut, and loaded onto pallets; the pallets are sealed up and fork-lifted onto a truck to be sent to port; where they will be shipped to Port Au Prince, Haiti.

At the end, we all said a prayer over one of the crates, and let the next shift take over.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? Maybe it was, but it was also a lot of fun. Can't wait to do it again next year. Take a look at the action in the little clip below: