Service project reminds congress-goers to care for their neighbors 'like Jesus did'

INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) -- As 10-year-old Annabel Cougron packed the pre-made meals in a large box at the end of an assembly line, she admitted she had never gone hungry. But she considered what that might feel like for someone who had.

"Like their stomachs must be hurting and it doesn't feel good," she said.

But helping such people "feels good," a lesson Annabel learned on July 18 while helping package meals for the Million Meal Movement as a service project during the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

The Indiana-based organization provides volunteer-packed meals to food banks and food pantries throughout the state.

"It's going well," Molly Adams, sales account executive for Million Meals Movement, told The Criterion, newspaper of the Indianapolis Archdiocese. "Our goal is 360,000 meals in 12 hours over the course of two days, and we're getting a steady flow of people and families and kids."

The volunteers worked in assembly lines in a section of the congress's exhibit hall in the Indiana Convention Center. Some filled packages with ingredients, some sealed the packages and others, like Annabel, packed the meals in boxes.

The project connects "in a multitude of ways" with the congress's desire to inspire others to show Christ's love to the world.

"It's about giving," said Adams. "Giving to the homeless, giving to your neighbors like Jesus did, and making sure that your neighbors have what they need to fulfill their life.

"Food is one of those areas that people surprisingly don't know that their neighbors are lacking or that they may be suffering from silently. So that little bit that we can do to help them can make a big difference."

It's a lesson Annabel's mother, Lori Arnold, wants to reinforce in her children.

"I'm always looking for opportunities to teach them to give back and be philanthropic," said Arnold, who worships at St. Alphonsus Liguori Church in Zionsville, Indiana, in the Lafayette Diocese. "This was just a great opportunity to teach them how to be of service."

At another table, Jordan Myers was sealing the filled packages being handed to him at a steady pace.

"I thought it would be a good experience of serving our community and those in need," said the member of St. Therese of the Child Jesus (Little Flower) Parish in Indianapolis. "It seems like it's a lot of work, so it's great to see everyone here working together to help a single cause."

A lot of work for Myers, perhaps. But from Annabel's point of view, "This is very fun!"