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| John and Sarah Ramthun and their son, Caleb, model the Feed My Sheep T-shirts being sold to support the project. Caleb is also holding samples of the food packets to be assembled at the Catholic Multicultural Center in Madison on April 5. (Catholic Herald photos/Cathy Lins) |
MADISON — Three and a half years ago, Madison area youth ministers were looking for a project that would engage their parishes in action befitting the Lenten season.
Several parishes banded together with the Catholic Multicultural Center, Kids Against Hunger, as well as the organization 6:8 Making Service Personal, and made a plan.
Feed My Sheep project
The plan, called Feed My Sheep, was to invite people from local Catholic parishes to donate toward building 25,000 meals for people in need in the Madison area and throughout the world. Each meal only cost a quarter. That goal was realized.
In 2013, the goal was set at 100,000 meals, and that goal, too, was met — and exceeded.
In 2014, the project again plans to pack over 100,000 meals, raising $25,000 and engaging over 600 volunteers.
This year’s pack event is scheduled for Saturday, April 5, at the Catholic Multicultural Center in Madison. Lunch will be served at 11 a.m. Volunteers will then work two-hour shifts for packing. Mass at 5:30 p.m. will complete the day.
6:8 Making Service Personal is again providing the oversight for the overall project. The group is managed by John and Sarah Ramthun.
They are working to meet this year’s goals, together with the people from the Catholic Multicultural Center and the members of Good Shepherd, Our Lady Queen of Peace, St. Maria Goretti, St. Peter, and St. Thomas Aquinas Parishes in Madison; Holy Mother of Consolation Parish in Oregon; St. Bernard Parish in Middleton; St. Francis Xavier in Cross Plains; and St. Martin Parish in Martinsville.
Preparation is underway
Sarah Ramthun took some time to share where they are at in the preparation process. The project has practically doubled in size since the first year’s effort.
“We are still raising the money, which is the harder task, and have just a few volunteer slots left to fill for the five and one-half hours to do the pack,” she said.
The parish youth ministers are working with their families to help them think about practical things they could do that will help a family in need.
Individuals are making donations online, and participating parishes are currently filling “Ewe Tubes” with quarters (plastic tubes with a picture of a sheep on it).
Ramthun noted that the total cost of one meal is a quarter. There are simple things we can do to make a difference for a family in need. For instance, “putting a quarter in a Ewe Tube each night at dinner time could feed 40 people by the end of Lent,” she said.
In addition to donations, the project is selling Feed My Sheep T-shirts and children’s onesies for $25 each. The electric blue and yellow T-shirts read, “Ewe r called . . . 2 feed my sheep.” The long sleeve purple shirts sell for $30 each and read, “My shirt fed 50 kids, what did yours do?”
Raising awareness of hunger
The organizers were looking for clever ways to engage members of the community on the issue of hunger and raise awareness about the needs within our own community. Ramthun indicated that the new awareness of need is one of the most powerful parts of the project. She recalled a point at last year’s event, when a six-year-old girl was helping.
They were talking about people in Madison who were hungry and “you could visibly see that point sinking in for her. All the more energy went into packing the meals, and then she wanted to know what more could we do,” recalled Ramthun. She added that even some of the adults were coming to a greater realization of the great need that exists.
Almost two dozen assembly lines will be in action the day of the pack event to package the meals. The food packets are a simple but nutritious combination of rice, soy, vegetables, and vitamins/essential nutrients.
Some of the meals will stay in the Madison area and go to local food pantries. If additional food pantries would like to receive the packaged food, they can register now with 6:8 for next year’s pack.
The rest of the meals will go to a school in Nicaragua started by a Catholic priest. He noticed children were at the dump scavenging for items to trade or sell for food. Offering meals at school makes it possible for students to be fed and receive an education.
For more information on the project, or to make a donation, go to the website www.makingservicepersonal.org/Feed MySheep You can also contact John and Sarah Ramthun at 6:8, 485 Prairie St., Prairie du Sac, WI 53578, or call 608-658-4700.