I'm packing meals for hungry families on Tuesday, October 27, and I need your help!

My school, Shepherd Christian School and Early Learning Center, is hosting Fall Harvest: Pack the Pantries with Meals of Hope. Every student from Pre-K through 12th grade will spend the school day packing meals side by side. On Wednesday morning, those meals go straight to local food pantries, including GRIN in Gahanna, the Shepherd Christian Church Johnstown food pantry and the Christian Center Church food pantry, who will share them with families that need them.

Hunger is closer to home than most of us realize. About 1 in 6 people in Franklin County don't always know where their next meal will come from. Across Ohio, more than 1.8 million people faced that same uncertainty.

Here's the amazing part: an average meal in Franklin County costs $3.87. Through Meals of Hope, it costs just 45 cents to pack one meal. Every cent raised goes directly toward packing meals, so every dollar you give packs more than two meals on Tuesday!

Here's what your gift can do:

$10 packs about 22 meals
$25 packs about 55 meals
$50 packs about 111 meals
$100 packs about 222 meals
$250 packs about 555 meals

Every meal is nutritious and non-perishable, made with ingredients like rice, beans, lentils, pasta and vegetables, fortified with vitamins and minerals.

Please give what you can! Every gift, big or small, puts more meals on a pantry shelf. Then share my page with your family and friends! The more people who join in, the more families we can feed together.

Thank you for standing with me and with our neighbors!