Community packs thousands of meals for those in need

MEDFORD, Ore.– Throughout the day at the First Baptist Church in Medford, hundreds of families and members of the community took shifts preparing food for the Rogue Valley Mobilepack.

In its third year, the Rogue Valley MobilePack, organized by Jason and Jessi Licato, brought nearly 1,000 volunteers together to prepare “Manna Pack” meals for starving children across the country and the world. In the last two years, the community has been able to produce over 300,000 meals. This year, organizers say they plan on making some 202,000.

“Everybody participating right around Thanksgiving time, we all kind of feel that extra push to be giving and charitable,” said Jason Licato, pointing to all of the volunteers. “Not that I think they need it. They’re all here having fun and it’s just a cool thing.”

This year the Mobilepack partnered with the Christian nonprofit organization Feed My Starving Children to hand pack all of the meals.

Volunteers were also encouraged to bring in canned or non-perishable foods to donate to ACCESS for the local community in need. Last year, over 300 pounds of food was collected and organizers expect to meet that number again this year.