Thousands of volunteers pack healthy Meals of Hope

Published:

FORT MYERS, Fla.- Two-thousand volunteers lined up downtown outside Harborside Event Center in downtown Fort Myers Christmas Eve morning, to pack boxes with Meals For Hope.

“We had an assembly line going. We were adding apples and cinnamon; adding sugar and putting just the right amount of those in there,” said volunteer Starla Kennelly.

Two kinds of meals will be distributed to the Harry Chapin Food Bank Monday: cinnamon sugar oatmeal and mac n’ cheese.

“We packed 600,000 fortified meals that [will] all stay within southwest Florida,” said executive director Stephen Popper.

Kids as young as four and five years of age came out to help. Meals of Hope said they were focused on packing nutrition and protein into the boxes this year, too.

“We add soy protein to it to increase the protein content, and we also add in our cheese sauce, with 21 different vitamins and minerals,” said Popper.

To make a donation or help pack a box, head to MealsofHope.org.

Copyright ©2024 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.