Youths and adults package meals for Take Away Hunger Oct. 8 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Washington.
By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
WASHINGTON — Catholics packaged food and donated coats last month to help vulnerable individuals at home and abroad.
Knights of Columbus from St. James Parish in Washington hosted a Take Away Hunger food packaging event Oct. 8 in the Knights of Columbus Hall. About 60 youths and adults from the area gathered to package 15,000 meals, funded by $4,500 in private donations and contributions from the Washington and Fairfield KC councils. Take Away Hunger, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based nonprofit, expects to send the meals to Haiti.
The Washington council hosted its first food packaging event last year. “It’s been a real success in bringing our local community together in support of our needy throughout the world,” said Dave Capper, grand knight for the Washington council. “Take Away Hunger enables us to identify this need in our world and arranges transportation and distribution to (their) communities. It’s also wonderful that the KC Councils in our district can work with us from both a financial and manpower perspective enabling the expansion of the program. We expect to continue and grow this effort in the future.”
Local Knights also helped address poverty on a local level last month. The Fairfield council hosted a coat drive for the first time, collecting new winter coats in youth sizes 8 to 18 for the African Violet Foundation (AVF) in Fairfield, which provides students in the Fairfield and Pekin school districts with clothing and school items at no cost.
The council presented 24 new coats to AVF on Oct. 22. Grand Knight Jacob Adam said the Fairfield council will monitor the distribution of the coats during the upcoming months and will consider expanding the program “as the need presents itself.”
