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Food For The Poor’s Join The Pack Volunteers Pack 101,088 Meals for World Food Day
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Oct. 21, 2026) – More than 700 volunteers packed 101,088 MannaPack meals over two days during Food For The Poor’s (FFTP) Join The Pack for World Food Day at Community Christian Church in Tamarac. Held in partnership with Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), the event brought together church members and community volunteers to help provide nutritious food for vulnerable children and families in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Observed annually on Oct. 16, World Food Day raises awareness of hunger and encourages action to address it worldwide.
“Launching our meal packing event on World Food Day allows us all to come together and express how essential food is for those who are in great need,” said FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine, who participated in one of the packing sessions. “It’s also the perfect opportunity to highlight the value of MannaPack meals and the importance of our relationship with Feed My Starving Children.”
This is the second consecutive year Community Christian Church partnered with FFTP to host Join The Pack. In 2025, volunteers gathered at the church for FFTP’s Join The Pack Jamaica, packing 124,416 MannaPack meals over two days to help families recovering from Hurricane Melissa.
During each packing session, volunteers wearing gloves and mesh hair nets worked side-by-side, filling bags with white rice, soy, freeze-dried vegetables and a seasoning blend containing essential vitamins and nutrients. Prepared with boiling water, each MannaPack provides six servings of nutritious food.
For Johanna Clark of Sunrise, participating in Join The Pack was an opportunity to serve God and a reminder not to take food for granted.
“It was amazing to know that we’re helping other children who don’t have the food they need, which we take for granted sometimes here in this country,” she said.
Clark and her husband, Anthony, helped label the MannaPack bags with use-by dates before they reached the packing tables. The couple said they enjoyed the event’s competitive nature, the music and the shared commitment to help others.
“This won’t be the last time we do this,” Anthony Clark said. “We enjoyed it.”
Sunrise resident Andrea Boyle, a member of Community Christian Church, also described the personal fulfillment of volunteering.
“If you have an opportunity to help someone, it’s probably being presented to you because God wants it in your life,” she said. “Knowing you’re helping somebody put food on their table is very satisfying and fulfilling for your soul.”
FFTP operates and supports programs that feed hundreds of thousands of people every day through trusted partners, including FMSC. Since 2006, FFTP has provided more than 4.69 billion meals to malnourished children and their families, including more than 76.19 million meals during the first six months of 2026.
FFTP and FMSC, a Christian nonprofit organization based in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, have partnered since 2009 to provide meals to families in need. Over the last five years, the organizations have delivered more than 95 million meals annually.
Raine said recent visits to communities in Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti reinforced the importance of the partnership and value of the meals volunteers packed.
“When I go into the communities where we serve, they tell us that MannaPack meals are making a difference,” he said. “That’s why we do this.”
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the United States, is committed to facilitating paths out of poverty and transforming lives. As an interdenominational Christian ministry, we help families across Latin America and the Caribbean. Our efforts span urgent humanitarian relief and long-term development – from emergency aid and hunger alleviation to education, housing, and economic empowerment. We follow a distinctive approach that integrates faith, multi-sector strategies, and trusted partnerships. Whenever possible, we strive to work at the community level, partnering with local leaders and residents to co-create sustainable solutions that address the multi-dimensional nature of poverty. For more information, please visit foodforthepoor.org.
Ernestine Williams
Communications
305-321-7342
[email protected]
