Several years ago my momma got a new job with a local non-profit in the twin cities area where she and my dad live in Minnesota. Fifteen hundred or so of you out there are now familiar with the organization: Feed My Starving Children. We partnered with this Christian hunger relief group this past weekend (March 25-27, 2010). We turned our church into a food packing plant and packaged nearly 278,000 meals that are now headed for hungry kids in the Philippines and around the world. 

Ma Carpenter came out to Valley Springs for the big event and in between wrestling pallets of rice, wrangling volunteers and playing with her granddaughter I cornered her and asked a few questions.

Brad: How did you first hear about Feed My Starving Children?

Ma Carpenter: I was running an after school kid's program for our church. I was broken hearted about the attitude that so many of the kids had about "How much can you give me? How many rewards can I have for anything I do for you?" And I really felt called to help them get engaged in giving. Its really hard to find a place where younger kids can give in a way that they understand. I went online for volunteer opportunities for kids in the twin cities and I found FMSC. So for two or three years I took kids from our after school program and really saw how it impacted them. It changed their lives.

Brad: So did you see a help wanted sign in the window and apply for a job or what?

Ma Carpenter: No, I had taken a leave of absence from nursing and was really searching and praying that God would give me some direction. I went online to search for non-profits that had employment opportunities and remembered FMSC. They were opening a new sight in the twin cities and my first venture with them was to help open a new packing sight.

Brad: How many meals has FMSC packed since you started working with them?

Ma Carpenter: Ew! Um, the first year that I worked for them we packed 45 million meals, and I remember a year where we packed 73 million meals and in this year that just ended we packed 96 million meals. I haven't been keeping a tally but I'm in my fifth year with them.

Brad: Have you ever met someone who grew up on Feed My Starving Children Meals?

Ma Carpenter: YES! One night I was doing a pack and a group came in from one of the local churches with a young man in a wheel chair. At the end of the orientation he raised his hand and said he was from Jamaica and said he was an orphan. For about the first five years of his life he survived on about two tablespoons of Feed My Starving Children food a day. His wheel chair was because of spinal-bifida not starvation, but he appeared to be a highly functioning and very intelligent young man who had been adopted by a couple in the U.S. He believes he would have died without the FMSC food.

Brad: What is your favorite thing about your job?

Ma Carpenter: My favorite thing about my job is seeing the light go on in peoples eyes and knowing that they get it! God really wants his kids fed and really really wants us all to be a part of it! We are all brothers and sisters and its really sinful that some of us have far too much when there are so many that struggle! And also, I like working really hard and I don't have to go to the gym! 

Brad: Its true! What was the craziest thing about coming all the way to California to do FMSC with Valley Springs?

Ma Carpenter: I think the craziest thing was...which just illustrates life...we get ourselves so worked up about stuff and the night before the event and we got that email that our truck with everything in it was stuck in a snow storm in Wyoming and the event was supposed to start that evening and we couldn't do a single thing about it! And prior to that evening THREE Trucks rolled in because your event was supposed to happen and no matter what: God Provides! God wants his kids fed!

Brad: So we went to an orientation and FMSC flashed a couple of scripture passages on the screen: "Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me" (Matthew 25:45) When you think about what you are doing, what passage of scripture is most related or what is the theme verse for you?

Ma Carpenter: There is a scripture that talks about being humble, and less of me and more of Christ (John 3:30) and I feel like that is what we all need to hang on to. Certainly the scripture that we flash, however we say that you do this for "the least" and we somehow put ourselves above because we are not the least and that comes back to being humble. When we use that scripture we think of the kids who are starving and it needs to be that. But FMSC's mission statement is "Feeding God's children, hungry in body and spirit." I truly believe that I see very few people in FMSC's permanent sites or at mobile packs that are hungry in body. But I see thousands that are hungry in spirit. I really believe that that is as big a piece of Feed My Starving Children as packing food.