FHNtoday.com | Francis Howell North

The smell of Ramen Noodles once again fills the air of the Keevan Storage Center as a container of chicken powder is emptied into a package of food. That package moves along an assembly line collecting soy, rice, and vegetable pellets to go along with the chicken powder.

The package is then vacuum-sealed and placed into a cardboard box. 36 packages of food complete that box and it is pushed to a corner of the storage facility to accompany 163 other boxes created on the morning of Jan. 30.

The people of Haiti mean so much to the citizens who give up their time to help people in need according to Kids Against Hunger coordinator Julie Linck. Julie has been working with this program since it began in Sept. 2008 and is used to the average shift: 90 boxes made in a three hour shift.

On Jan. 30, Julie was overwhelmed to find over 35 volunteers and 164 boxes made in two shifts. This being the second food packaging this month, the Kids Against Hunger ministry ran out of funds to purchase the ingredients for the packages; therefore, volunteers were paying to contribute. Julie enjoys participating in these events because of the results seen.

"Its exciting and a great ministry," Julie says, "I like it because it provides tangible results. Everyone leaves knowing that they physically did something to help and they have a sense of pride because of it."

Two other main contributors to Kids Against Hunger, Steve Tompkin and Brian Henrikson, got some exciting news while packaging food. The owner of the New Orleans Hornets (basketball) agreed to fly the executive director of the House of Hope orphanage and St. Louis resident Carl Vorst down to Haiti in a private airplane on Wednesday, Feb. 3.

He will then donate the plane for other trips to and from Haiti since the military will not allow anyone to enter the area. The best part of this is that ten of the boxes packaged on Jan. 30 are being taken with them. The volunteers were buzzing when they heard that the food they were preparing will be in the hands of a needy Haitian by the end of the week.

Steve Tompkin, father of FHN junior Jared Tompkin, has been to Haiti twice working on maintenance projects at House of Hope Orphanage, like the 16 bunk beds made for the orphans. Working with Kids Against Hunger brings out the emotional side of Steve.

"It makes me feel great," Steve said with tears in his eyes, "Seeing people come forward and contribute their time and money to help people in another country."