Beetle Hunting

We just came home a short bit ago and I was thrilled to see comments that some of you are checking out Stop Hunger Now and Operation Sharehouse. It really is an awesome organization. And amazing that this simple meal can be so easily shipped where it’s needed and provide nourishing substance.

Here’s a photo with just a small portion of the pallets filled with boxes of the meals:

I had one of those “duh” moments earlier today after posting, but before we left home. I went back to the evite to see who from our group had replied “yes.” And, oops! I never fully read our friend, Darron’s, full note. As soon as I saw “Stop Hunger Now really needs our help”, I signed us up thinking “let’s make some meals!” I overlooked this statement:

Because of a bad shipment of rice, the warehouse has had a problem with a little insect called the Saw Tooth Grain Beetle. They have some meals that will be heading out to Guatemala, Bolivia, and Haiti very soon. Although the problems seem to be over with, there are some meals that cannot be shipped. In order to get these meals out, the bags that were infested need to be separated from the bags that are still good. My understanding is that these beetles do not provide any health risk – but still would not be allowed to be shipped across borders.

So, we didn’t get to make meals, but we did manage to save some of the meals recently packaged by other volunteer groups. This is equally important. Better to lose a few infected boxes than thousands. In all, approximately 60 volunteers attended our 2 hour session this afternoon. We sorted through 9 pallets (over 14,000 meals!) and ended with 7 pallets of good meals.

The sorting process:

Repacking the good meals:

The work isn’t done yet. Trent & I stayed after a bit and spoke with Chad Stutsman, the Operation Sharehouse Program Director. They are about halfway through checking packed meals for the beetles. Their goal is to be complete by the end of January so they can return to the process of producing more meals.

If you are in the Raleigh area and would like to help, the following dates need volunteers: January 16 from 5-7 pm, January 17 from 5-7 pm, and January 19 from 12-2 pm.