“The easiest way to introduce World Mission to your church…”
Rev Dr Hugh Osgood, Churches Together England
What is Hand to Hand?
How does Food Packing work?
Hand to Hand is a church-based, community-focused food packing event.
Packing food parcels is a tangible way of doing world mission: the food packs feed hungry people on the edge of communities and open up conversation about Jesus. It’s a great way to engage your church family in international mission – but also a chance to reach out locally too.
We know that engaging with the local community can be a challenge, so how about inviting local people to take part in a food packing event? This is a fantastic way to spend over an hour interacting and conversing with friends or new acquaintances, and demonstrate the Church at work.
I’d like to run a food packing event at my church.
How does it work?
Food packing is very simple. Teams of volunteers work together on a food production line to bag, weigh, seal and box packets of dried food. A team of 60 volunteers could pack 10,000 meals within the space of a couple of hours.
In the United States and elsewhere in Europe, food packing is fairly well known. In 2017, over 300 million meals were packed in the USA and sent overseas. In the UK, food packing is relatively new, although is becoming more common, especially in the corporate sector.
Feed The Hungry takes food packing and makes it relevant for churches. We bring all of the equipment, food and a team of people to run the event at your venue. We’ll work with you each step of the way to help you to organize the event, providing resources to help you fundraise and gather volunteers.
Where does the food go?
Is your church connected to a school? Find out how your church can work with the school children to get involved in The Million Meal Miracle…
The Practicalities
Picking a venue
Food packing can take place almost anywhere. However, there are a few factors you’ll need to consider:
- the size of the venue (is it big enough for all the volunteers and equipment?)
- the access (can we get food and equipment in and out of the venue – are there any stairs or narrow doorways?)
- the amenities (are there electrical sockets and clean water nearby?)
- and the logistics (is there parking nearby and how close to the venue can a van be unloaded and loaded?)
A site visit by one of our team will usually be necessary before the suitability of the venue can be confirmed.
Raising money
There is a cost to running a food packing event: the rice, soya, lentils and micronutrients all have a cost to them, as well as the bags, boxes, labels and transport.
We try to keep the cost of putting on a food packing event to as low as possible. For Hand To Hand events, this starts at 25p per meal packed, which is significantly lower than the industry standard of 35p per meal. For example, a 5000 meal Hand To Hand packing event would cost £1250 for a school, church or community group.
There is a minimum number of meals that need to be packed at a single event, although this varies by location. Please get in touch for details and specific costs.
Finding volunteers
In order for a food packing event to go ahead, there’ll need to be a team of willing volunteers. The number of volunteers needed will depend on the number of meals to be packed.
As a rough guideline…
- 5000 meals will require about 20 to 30 volunteers
- 10000 meals will require about 40 to 50 volunteers
- 20000 meals will require about 70 to 80 volunteers
We’ll work with you to determine a practical target, accounting for the size of the venue and number of volunteers who might like to take part.
Find out more about Hand to Hand and how it could work for your community. Our Hand to Hand team can answer your questions and guide you through the preparations to run a successful community event.
