Live Love Food Pack

By Allison Jones

 

Last Tuesday, a student-driven food-packing event, fostered by Food Aid International, was held at Milligan to produce meals for orphans in Haiti. The pack was in conjunction with the Live Love Movement happening on campus, which is a tour that encompasses performing and serving; there was a food-packing event at every stop on the Live Love Tour. The Movement had bands that performed, speakers that inspired, and an outreach that served.

 

The Live Love Movement is a non-profit organization that partners with churches and colleges. The Movement’s Facebook page describes it as to “Empower and mobilize Christ-followers to live out their love for Jesus by relationally serving the poor and oppressed.”

 

51 volunteers showed up to help pack the roughly 16,200 meals with an additional 10 volunteers there to assist in loading and unloading the truck.

 

 “We're part of a movement that feeds 89,000 children there on the island every day,” said Food Aid International President Chris Leader in an interview with News Channel 11.  “We're excited to be able to partner with the university to physically, tangibly get our hands dirty and taking food and feeding the hungry."

 

Food Aid International provided the items to be packed, and volunteers were assembled in five lines to bag, seal, and package the bags that were being shipped.

 

All of the ingredients encompassed in the packages are created to supply starving children with the nutrients that are of necessity to restore their bodies back to health. Leader talked to Channel 11 about the harsh statistics coinciding with these dying children.

 

"The reality is that every six seconds, a child dies due to starvation in the world, that's 16,000 that will die today,” said Leader. “Over 5.8 million children will die this year, and what's really staggering is there is enough food in the world to feed 2,700 calories to every living human being on the planet, and so the problem of hunger is one that we can actually solve by getting the right amounts of food to the right places at the right time."  

 

Milligan students graciously volunteered their time to serve during the event, and some students, like junior Junia Ray, think that they gained far more than they gave by participating in the food pack.

 

“I served at the food packing event because I did it last year and really liked being able to help people in another country by packing meals,” said Ray. “I enjoyed serving in this simple, yet big way.”

 

The Live Love Movement Tour, partnered with the food pack sponsored by Food Aid International, provided Milligan students with a time to worship, reflect, and serve, and as junior LINC worker Mikayla Vosler said, it was truly the definition of servant leadership on Milligan’s campus.

 

“Everything went better than we ever could have imagined,” said Vosler. “Not only were people helping during the food pack, but we also had a lot of students just stop and volunteer to help us set up the food.”

 

The Live Love Tour brought connections, worship, and leadership to a whole new level. Students were challenged spiritually to develop as not only stronger Christians, but also stronger servant leaders: the cornerstone of Milligan’s mission.

 

“My over all experience with the Live Love Tour was such a blessing. I loved learning about the ways that the Live Love Movement had blessed other churches and college campuses,” said Ray. “I have kept in contact with a few guys from the tour and they have poured many opportunities in front of me, helping me figure out how I can further serve in God’s Kingdom.”