A mom with two young children was labeling MannaPack™ bags at a recent MobilePack™ event called Feed the Need in Naperville, Illinois. FMSC staff member Amy Chaney shares their story:

The child on the inside of the table was a little blonde girl busy labeling bags on her own. The other child positioned at the end of table was a boy, about five years old, sitting in a wheelchair.

Due to the complexity of the wheelchair, it was clear this child had very little to no mobility of any of his limbs. At first glance this mom looked like every other labeler we had, just chatting with the person across the table from her as she worked.

But then, something caught my eye.

After she placed a label on each bag, she lovingly reached over to her son’s clenched hand and gently placed it on top of the bag, then slid his hand from side to side to cover the label.

Lastly, she would add it to the “done” stack of bags and continue doing this again and again.

What I love so much about what we do at Feed My Starving Children is that we are not just an organization about the bottom line, efficiency numbers or cost effectiveness.

We are first and foremost about the power of changing the life of ONE child at a time.

 Every child has a name. Every child has a story. Every child matters.

This mom could have potentially labeled twice as many bags had she not taken the time to allow her son to actively participate.

One step further, she didn’t even have to bring him. She could have hired a babysitter and not had him there at all. But she did.

The actions of this mom were a beautiful reflection of the same mission we have at FMSC.

Her son has a name: Avery. Her son has a story. It mattered that he was there because he had something to offer.