Volunteers prepare 10,000 meals for local families in need

For homeless children, holiday breaks from school can be especially difficult because it means they won’t have access to regular meals through school breakfast and lunch programs, says Debbie Hanlon, a family engagement liaison at Reisterstown Elementary.

So school staff members have already distributed Thanksgiving meals, and have now begun collecting food for the lengthy winter break to make sure kids and their families have something to eat, Hanlon said.

On Saturday, Hanlon was among a group of about 250 volunteers who assembled meals in the Owings Mills High School cafeteria for students at Reisterstown, as well as kids at six other local schools and for families at three shelters. The volunteer meal-prepping event, hosted by the United Church in Owings Mills and the Generosity Feeds organization, assembled 10,000 4-ounce packages of dried black beans, rice and vegetables in just over an hour.

The Rev. Tim Wolf, lead pastor at United Church, which meets at the Owings Mills High auditorium, said his church is always looking for opportunities to volunteer to benefit the local community. “We want to meet real, practical needs in our county. About 50 percent of children in this county are food-insecure,” he said.

The church collected and helped supply $10,000 for the meals packaged Saturday. Each package of food has two servings, which just need water and a few minutes to prepare.

Erinn Beckner, the vice president of operations at Generosity Feeds, said it teams with churches or other groups, and has hosted 45 events around the county, preparing 500,000 meals this year.