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Utah missionaries assemble 350,000 meals for needy

Food packages

PROVO, Utah — Missionaries in Provo wore red and blue hairnets, sang songs and rang cowbells as they assembled more than 350,000 Thanksgiving meals to donate to the Utah Food Bank, The Deseret News reported.

The ingredients to make the apple pie oats kits -- Scottish oats, puffed rice, dehydrated apple bits and nutmeg -- were contributed by the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and organizers from Orlando, Florida-based Feeding Children Everywhere.

There were 60 assembly tables set up at the Missionary Training Center to accommodate 1,500 volunteers, the News reported. Working in teams of 12, the missionaries sang holiday hymns and rang a cowbell each time a kit was sealed and ready for delivery.

Dave Green, CEO of Feeding Children Everywhere, told missionaries during a meeting before the service project, “Our mission as an organization is activating people for a hunger-free world.”

The completed meals were stacked up on pallets and will be picked up Monday by the Utah Food Bank, then distributed throughout the state by next week, the News reported.

Ginette Bott, chief development officer of the Utah Food Bank, said the work by the volunteers was gratifying.

“I think we all are able to be more grateful when we give to someone else,” Bott told the News. “I hope this will be a lasting memory for these [missionaries].”