By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – The gym at Cornerstone Christian School resembled a small-scale factory on Nov. 13 as students packed and boxed meals for the hungry overseas and in Shelby County.

Donning gloves and hairnets, nearly 220 students in kindergarten through 12th grade worked in 45-minute shifts to pack and box thousands of individual meals to send to orphans and children in Haiti, along with local people in need, as part of the school’s second annual Feed the Need event.

Over the last couple of months, CCS students have raised money for their school and for the purchase of about 10,000 meals they assembled Nov. 13, according to Don Carmichael, president of Feed the Need.

“This is our biggest fundraiser of the year for Cornerstone,” Carmichael said. “Families can get excited about what this does for their kids. It’s just been a very special event.”

Carmichael said students have sought family, friend and corporate sponsors for a walk-a-thon fundraiser.

As of Nov. 13, students had raised more than $31,000, he said.

Of the 10,000 meals the students assembled, 8,500 will be shipped to Haiti, while 1,500 will stay in Shelby County.

“The average child in Haiti eats one meal every two days,” Carmichael said. “Their tummies are hungry. We’re trying to teach children lessons in gratitude, serving others and being thankful for what you have here.”

Hannah Peoples, a sophomore at CCS, reached out to her friends and relatives for support of the event.

“I think this is a great cause for people and being able to feed these people,” Peoples said. “I love what we’re doing here. It’s really good.”

Warren Goodwin, a sixth grader, said the packing was “fun.”

“I think it’s really good because you get impacted by knowing that the food you’re packing is going to other countries to feed other people,” Goodwin said.

CCS Director Jay Adams said Feed the Need provides a fundraiser for the school that also benefits others.

“For a long time, Cornerstone had to do a great deal of fundraising each year simply to make budget,” Adams said. “After we got out of debt, it was important to us … to send something back out into the world. Rather than just doing a sponsorship drive for Cornerstone, the primary goal now is the feeding of the hungry.”

Carmichael said each bag of food CCS students prepared contained rice (a source of carbohydrates and energy), soy (a protein), dehydrated vegetables and Vitamix (19 vitamins and minerals).

“We have a mix that dietitians at General Mills formulated for children with malnutrition,” Carmichael said, adding the students were packing more than 1,680 bags of food.

“I like to enjoy packing the food for other countries,” second grader Adison Scheffield said. “I think that they’re very hungry and they really need this food.”