Families of Hondurans receive bagged Kids Against Hunger meals that were packed in northwest Iowa. A container of 285,000 meals is being distributed in Montana de la Flor, home to a remote group of native Hondurans. Sister Val Knoche, Francis Seivert and Paul Gengler helped distribute the meals, packed at Gehlen on May 9th as well as other area schools. [Click to enlarge]

Two containers full of dry meals, many packed at the Kids Against Hunger event at Gehlen Catholic School in May, are reaching their destinations in Honduras.

The first container of 285,000 meals was delivered at the end of June to Montana de la Flor, a remote region populated by a group of native Hondurans.

Paul Gengler, of Le Mars, was one of the people handing out bags of the dried food mix to the Hondurans.

"It's just awesome," he said. "You don't realize how hungry and poor people are until you see it with your own eyes. The poorest people here (in America) have more money than they do."

Gengler stayed for about a week, helping hand out food at several locations.

"It was really neat to see the people line up because they were going to get food," he said.

This is the Le Mars Public Storage president's third trip to Honduras.

"It's worthwhile," Gengler said. "You don't get the true feeling of doing something good until you see people's eyes."

A second container, with more than 19 pallets of food, will be divided among several locations. This container of 285,120 meals was shipped and paid for by Mission Honduras Le Mars.

The food in this container comes from many different school and church packing events this spring sponsored by Kids Against Hunger Le Mars.

Each of the 19 pallets has 66 boxes, each box has 36 bags of the rice and protein mix, and each bag makes six meals.

Some are going to the Health Center in Guante, some to the Health Center in Suyutal, some to Tierra Santa and some to a malnutrition center.

Additional pallets will be divided as need is determined, according to Francis Seivert, the brother of the Gehlen event coordinator Richard Seivert. Francis is helping in Honduras.

"(The meals) should be used for those people that are very poor and have poor access to food," he said.

Meals were packed at Gehlen on May 9th, and other area Catholic schools on May 8th.