Perry Lutheran Homes to host last Meals from the Heartland

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The final Meals from the Heartland meal-packing event will take place Wednesday, May 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Perry Lutheran Homes’ Willis Avenue Campus at 2323 Willis Ave. in Perry. Photo courtesy Perry Lutheran Homes

The final Meals from the Heartland meal-packing event will take place Wednesday, May 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Perry Lutheran Homes’ Willis Avenue Campus at 2323 Willis Ave. in Perry. Photo courtesy Perry Lutheran Homes

The Perry Lutheran Homes is looking for 280 volunteers to help reach their goal of packing 100,000 meals over the four years of the Meals from the Heatland event. The meal-packing event will take place Wednesday, May 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Perry Lutheran Homes’ Willis Avenue Campus at 2323 Willis Ave. in Perry.

This year will mark the Perry Lutheran Homes’ final year of packaging another 30,000 meals in one day — for a combined four-year total of more than 100,000 meal packs completed and helping more than 600,000 undernourished people in need across the U.S. and in third-world countries.

“Our residents, staff and community members really look forward to this event every year, said Melissa Gannon, chief operating officer and administrator at the Perry Lutheran Homes. “Nearly 300 people gather together of differing ages, abilities, cultures and backgrounds to serve others in need. It’s simply an amazing representation of what it means to be a community united for the good of others and is an extension of our mission to Serve Christ by Serving Others.”

Forty volunteers are needed each hour for seven shifts throughout the day. Accommodations can be made for any volunteer needing to sit during his or her shift.

In addition to needing volunteers to package meals, the Perry Lutheran Homes welcomes monetary donations to help cover the $6,100 cost of the food content for the packaged meals. Food content costs are 20 cents per meal.

Although this marks the last year of Meals from the Heartland at the Perry Lutheran Homes, we are making plans to continue this annual event with volunteers and partners invited to join us again next year, when we shift our focus from third-world countries to local Perry Invisible Elders in need of help. Look for more information about this more locally focused effort in 2020!

The Perry Lutheran Homes will also highlight their recent intergenerational eldercare work in Jacmel, Haiti. Eldercare is a new concept for the people of Haiti, but elders are among the nation’s most vulnerable as extreme poverty and disability often force elders to living on the streets, dependent upon the kindness of strangers for food or water to survive.

“Our recent work in Haiti has revealed a great need to help the Invisible Elders both in Haiti and in our own communities,” said the Rev. Max Phillips, chief executive officer at the Perry Lutheran Homes. “Elders are tucked away behind walls. We don’t hear or see their needs, but they are indeed there. It is our responsibility to find, help and serve our invisible elders so they aren’t hungry, afraid, alone or forgotten.”

The Perry Lutheran Homes’ residents and tenants at both Willis campus and Spring Valley campus lead very active and purposeful lives. Volunteers will have a chance to learn about other mission projects that have global impacts taking place right here in Perry.

Visitors interested in taking a tour of the Perry Lutheran Homes’ award-winning memory care communities and/or the Acorns and Oaks intergenerational daycare are also encouraged to stick around after their meal packing shift to do so.

Sign up today to volunteer to package meals or to make a monetary donation for this amazing event! Please contact Carsin Olsin at the Perry Lutheran Homes today at 515-465-5342 or Colson@PerryLutheranHomes.org.

Mollie A. Clark is the director of marketing for the Perry Lutheran Homes.

The final Meals from the Heartland meal-packing event will take place Wednesday, May 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Perry Lutheran Homes’ Willis Avenue Campus at 2323 Willis Ave. in Perry. Photo courtesy Perry Lutheran Homes

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