A sea of pink t-shirts flooded the gymnasium at Highland Community Schools yesterday as students and staff filled bags and boxes of food for starving children. Through the volunteer organization, Meals from the Heartland, and the Highland FFA, over 40,000 meals were produced.

Since its start in 2008, Meals from the Heartland has provided 200 million meals to almost 40 countries around the world. Working with schools, businesses, and churches in Iowa, the organization supplies the equipment and ingredients, while the host provides packagers, space, and funding.

Highland had no shortage of volunteers or space, with students taking time away from class to work at one of 10 different stations packaging rice, soy, dried vegetables, and vitamin-infused broth. When it came to the funding, FFA Advisor for Highland, Gina Trower, tells KCII that the school’s test plot covered the expenses. “The money that we make off of that, we got it from the community so we want to put [it] back to the community. So we use that money from the test plot to pay for this event.”

Iowa’s farmland played more than one role in the event. As Georgie Filber with Meals from the Heartland explained, “This soy, we purchase it from Cargill in Cedar Rapids and they source within 100 miles, so it could have been grown right here, maybe these farmers, these people.”

Meals from the Heartland saw a record-breaking 2022, providing 26 million meals. With a goal of 200 events this year, they are on pace to surpass that mark. Filber went on to add that the 40,000 meals packaged by the Highland community yesterday can feed over 100 children for an entire year.