Washington, Iowa AM Optimist Club

Yesterday, Feb. 22 I gave Power Point presentation and showed a short video "Feeding the Future" to the Washington, Iowa AM Optimist Club.The meeting was at 6:30AM but it was worth getting up early. The club is going to discuss if they want to help Mary's Meals.

 

Wellman Rotary Club

On Wednesday, Feb. 16th I spoke at the Wellman Rotary Club's Meeting. I gave a power-point presentation and then I showed the short Mary's Meals video "Feeding the Future."

Ways You Can Help Mary's Meals

The ways you can help Mary's Meals are:

• Tell your friends, family & colleagues about Mary's Meals
• Organize a raffle at your church, office, or school
• Add Mary's Meals' website adress to your email signature
• Pray for Mary's Meals
• Sell something on Ebay or at a second hand store for Mary's Meals
• Give a Mary's Meals gift card instead of buying somone a present
• Remember Mary's Meals in your will
• More ideas at: www.marysmealsusa.org

Mpondasi School!!

Today I learned the exciting news of where the "Malawi Iowa Kitchen" will be built.  The school that the kitchen would be built at, is the Mpondasi School.

Mpondasi School is in the Mangochi district of Malawi, which is in the southern part of the country. There are 2,496 children attending the school, 1,214 are boys and 1,282 are girls and the school is run by the Anglican church. Mpondasi has toilets available and their source of water is a tap. The roads around the school are very good which makes it easier for Mary’s Meals to access. The community involvement and participation is good, and they will be providing the volunteers for the kitchen.

Through the generosity of many people, the first $11,000 I raised will be used to pay for the cost of building and equipping this kitchen where the children are fed each day. The kitchen shelter consists of a cooking area and two storage areas, one for firewood and one for storage. As the equipment will be used daily, the materials that are used will last a reasonable length of time.  As well as the special ‘rocket stoves’ which cooks the Likuni Phala porridge, the kitchen will also be equipped with cooking utensils and a blackboard as sometimes the kitchen shelter doubles up as a extra classroom. The kitchen is expected to be completed in April/May this year. 

I would like to extend a warm thank you on behalf of everyone at Mary’s Meals and especially from all the children at Mpondasi School, for all who donated to Mary's Meals and all who prayed for the success of the kitchen, for helping us to build the kitchen required to start feeding at this school.  

Picture of the Week!!!

                                              Children who receive Mary's Meals

Mary's Meals Video Site

Here is a link to Mary's Meals new video site. To go to the website click here.

GREAT NEWS!!

Last night my total reached $11,000 plus, over $2,600 towards feeding the children in that kitchen!!  I still need your help to feed the children at that kitchen. It costs $7,000 to feed the children at the kitchen for one year. I  need $4,400 towards my goal feed the children in the kitchen for one year. 

The Problem - World Hunger

The Problem - World Hunger

Today more people die from hunger related diseases than they do from HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis combined.  In a world where there is enough food for everybody, hunger is still the biggest threat to health.  Children are particularly vulnerable.  Hunger kills millions of them each year.  It also stunts their growth and their dreams.  Hungry children think about survival, not about going to school. 

The Solution - Mary's Meals
An education can set a child free from poverty in adult life.  To gain an education children first need to attend school and then be given the opportunity to learn.

(Source: Mary's Meals brochure)

Merry Chrismas!!!

Picture Of The Week

This picture is of Magus MacFarlane-Barrow the founder of Mary's Meals, holding a newborn african child.

Picture Of The Week

 Every week I will try to choose a "Picture Of The Week.  
This picture is of three children in Malawi, Africa, eating their meal. 

How and Why Magnus started Mary's Meals?

How and Why Magnus started Mary's Meals?


The Mary's Meals movement was born in 2002 after a trip Magnus made to Malawi, Africa during a famine. The mother he met who was dying of Aids was called Emma. It was her oldest child Edward, who was about 14, who told Magnus that his ambition was "to have enough food to eat and to go to school one day."

Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane-Barrow

Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane-Barrow: 
 
Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane-Barrow are two brothers from Scotland who in 1992 during the Bosnian conflict took a jeep load of aid from their home to Medjugorje in Bosnia. Mangus, who was 24 at the time, gave up his job as a fish farmer for a year to keep delivering the flow of aid but it hasn't stopped since!!

St. James Catholic School

On Thurs, Dec 9, I spoke to the students at St. James Catholic Grade School in Washington, Iowa.  I shared with them what am doing with Mary's Meals.  After I spoke, I met with a group of students who would like to help with the Mary's Meals project.

 

 

Mission Market

On Saturday, December 4, I went to the local Mission Market in Kalona, IA which is sponsored by the Mid-Prairie Council of Churches. The charity's that were promoted were: Heifer Project International, Hospice, Nothing But Nets, Go Ye Missions Children's Home-India, Parkview Chaplaincy Program, 10,000 Villages Project, Tools of Hope and Blankets, Habitat for Humanity, Washington Co. Enrichment Foundation, Mary's Meals and Mennonite Disaster Service.  

Several people commented that they remembered me coming to the Mission Market when I was a little girl.  Some of highlights for me at the Mission Market were: getting the opportunity to talk to people about Mary's Meals, learning about other charity's, meeting a 102 year old spry young man!!! 

Article in the Catholic Messenger

On Dec. 1, 2010, an article about the project I'm working on with Mary's Meals was published in the Catholic Messenger, the newspaper of the Davenport Diocese.  To get to the article, click here.

 By Celine Klosterman

Allison Ockenfels, 12, couldn’t shake the knowledge that students not much younger than her are going hungry throughout the world.
“It’s hard to imagine going without a meal for a couple days,” said the member of St. Joseph Parish in Wellman.
So she’s spearheading a fundraising effort to feed children in Malawi through Mary’s Meals, an international movement to provide food and education for children in poverty-plagued areas. Since launching her campaign Nov. 20, she’s raised more than $6,500 toward her goal of $11,000, which will pay to build and equip a kitchen at an African school. After donors have contributed enough to pay for the kitchen, Allison wants to raise $7,000 to feed students through that kitchen for a year. Providing meals at school encourages children to attend, and well-fed students can better focus on learning, Mary’s Meals notes.
Allison said her effort was inspired by Matthew 25:35, in which Jesus says: “For I was hungry and you gave me food… whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” She had earlier heard about Mary’s Meals in Des Moines during the Oct. 16-17 Christ Our Life Catholic Conference, at which the organization’s founder, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow of Scotland, spoke on topics including child hunger.
“I can’t stop thinking about those kids,” she later told her mother, Pam Ockenfels. So the student brought the idea of launching a fundraising campaign to Father Rich Adam, pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Holy Trinity Parish in Richmond and St. Mary Parish in Riverside. He later donated the first $1,000 toward her goal, and the Wellman parish’s Altar & Rosary Society chipped in $500.
“It impressed me that she wanted to do this,” Fr. Adam said.
Allison spoke during Masses and collected donations at the three parishes the weekend of Nov. 20-21. She also hopes to speak at faith formation classes and at area schools, churches and organizations.
Last week, the homeschooled student said she was pleasantly surprised by how much people already have responded to her appeal.
 “Our cluster parishes are so behind her,” said Pat Schmida, a member of St. Joseph Parish’s Altar & Rosary Society. “She’s just a wonder.”
Like Allison, Schmida was inspired at the Christ Our Life conference by hearing about Mary’s Meals, which says 93 percent of donations it receives go to charity. The organization also says it can provide a nutritious serving of porridge for a child in Malawi every school day for a year for about $10, thanks to community volunteers, the buying power of foreign money in Malawi, and buying and cooking in bulk.

How Did I First Hear About Mary's Meals?

I first heard about Mary's Meals at the Christ Our Life Conference in Des Moines, Iowa in October, 2010.

Our Catholic Priest, Father Rich Adam, took a bus load of 72 people to the conference.

The speakers at the conference were: Renee Bondi, Fr. Rick Wendell, Matthew Kelly, Marino Restrepo, Bishop Richard E. Pates, Francis Cardinal Arinze and Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow is the founder of Mary's Meals.

Hearing Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow made me think about:

Matthew 25 35-40 when Jesus said For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger, and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me.

I was ill, and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the just will ask him: 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, of thirsty and give you drink?

When did we welcome you away from home or clothe you in your nakedness?

When did we visit you when you were ill or in prison?

'The king will answer them: 'I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me.'

That made me ponder, HOW AM I SERVING THE LEAST OF MY BROTHERS. Thinking about how am I serving the least of my brothers, made me want to help feed poor children who are starving. I can do this by raising money for Mary's Meals and raising awareness of the starving children.

I don't know about you, but for me sometimes it's easy to just give a little money to a charity and then go on with my happy little life. That's the way I was until one day I was thinking and imagining what it would be like TO GO WITHOUT A MEAL FOR ONE OR TWO DAYS. That is when I really decided to help raise money and awareness for Mary's Meals.

Welcome to my Blog!!!

Hello my name is Allison Ockenfels. One week ago, Nov. 20, I started my fund raising campaign for Mary's Meals. I spoke each of our cluster parishes:  St. Josephs, Wellman, Holy Trinity, Richmond and St. Mary's, Riverside. In one week I have raised $5,902 towards my goal of $11,000 to build one kitchen to feed the school children of Malawi Africa.  I am very thankful for the generosity of each donor.