FAIRMONT– A portion of the community will come together Saturday, Feb. 12 during the Kids Against Hunger food pack. There, volunteers will pack meals that will feed people locally and around the world.

The first local food pack was done in 2009 and as an annual event, this is the 13th pack since there was no pack done last year due to Covid.

“In 2020 we just got it in within a couple of weeks of being shut down,” said Karen Sandhurst, chairperson of the Martin County Kids Against Hunger committee.

This year’s pack will be held at the National Guard Armory in Fairmont though from 2009 to 2013 the packs were held at St. John Vianney.

“It was a little smaller scale then. In 2014, I took over as chairperson and we couldn’t get St. John Vianney so we held it at the Armory. That venue worked out pretty well for us,” Sandhurst said, siting the bigger space and the fact that it’s all on one level.

The event requires the help of local volunteers who will work in shifts throughout the day. There’s 10 people to a team, which makes it an ideal event for business to partake in. The teams work in an assembly style, putting in ingredients and weighing the bag.

“It has to weigh between 395 and 400 grams. You add or delete rice to make it come out to the right weight,” Sandhurst said.

The bag is sealed and laid out and once there are 36 bags, they’re packed into one box. Each bag is a meal for six.

“There’s 216 meals in a box,” Sandhurst said.

Most of the meals packed will go to Haiti, but a portion of it stays local and goes to each of the five food shelves in Martin County

“We contact them and they tell us how much they can use and then we deliver them. They can have as much as they want,” Sandhurst said.

She said about 10 percent, or 10,000 meals, will stay local, as Sandhurst said their goal is 100,000 meals.

In the past, Sandhurst said they’ve packed over 130,000 meals in a day, but they set this year’s goal slightly lower because they were a little skeptical after missing a year.

“We were afraid we might not get our packers or donors back, so we backed down a little bit. A hundred thousand is still known as a big pack,” Sandhurst said.

They work with the satellite site in Sioux Falls, which is where they get the food and equipment from. The money raised locally is sent there, which is used to pay for the food that’s packed.

“We’ve always been able to pay for everything we’ve packed here,” Sandhurst said.

As for raising funds, Sandhurst said they send out a business mailing in the fall and also a mailing to churches and other civic groups which includes Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Kiwanis and Fairmont Women of Today.

Sandhurst said some business donate money and don’t send a team to pack, and some businesses or groups can’t donate money but send a team to pack.

“It all works out. If we each do our part, we’ll get it covered,” Sandhurst said.

The Kids Against Hunger benefit concert, which also happens annually and took place last week, raised about $900 during the free will offering and nearly $600 in T-shirt sales.

Many business have donated not only money or teams, but other items as well.

Sandhurst said that Culligan donates water for all of the packers and Pizza Ranch donates pizza to the packers who will be working all day. Sterling Drug has donated masks, as they are required for the packers.

“We get a lot donated. It’s such a community effort,” Sandhurst said.

So far, about 27 teams have signed up to pack, which equals 270 individuals. Sandhurst said they usually they have around 300 and could still use more teams for the shift that spans from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

“It really is an uplifting day. I think a lot of people feel that way. It’s an uplifting experience to pack. You know you’re doing a good thing,” Sandhurst said.

If anyone is able to pack, or would like to donate, they can contact Sandhurst at 507-848-1260.