12 May 2010

The Salvation Army is urging Northwesters to pack a million meals for Haiti earthquake survivors at a mass volunteer event. This is your opportunity to help make a difference.

WHAT: A fun event packing a million meals that will feed displaced individuals living in a tent city operated by The Salvation Army in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Since the Jan. 12 disaster, The Salvation Army has already packed, shipped and distributed 10 million meals to the country.

Currently, The Salvation Army is distributing approximately one million meals per week in Haiti. To meet the constant demand for food, “Million Meals for Haiti” events are being organized around the United States in partnership with Salvation Army World Service Office (SAWSO) and Numana-- a non-profit organization (http://www.numanainc.com) that produces dried, non-perishable meals to be distributed to areas of hunger worldwide. To date, The Salvation Army “Million Meals for Haiti” events have occurred in Los Angeles, Chicago, Kansas City, San Francisco and other cities.

WHO: At least 2000 volunteers are needed to make Seattle's event successful. It takes a team of 12 to assemble and package the food so come alone or bring others to form your own team....Tell your family, friends, colleagues, community clubs, church, etc! Volunteers need to be at least 10-years-old.

WHERE: Washington State Convention Center, 800 Convention Pl., Seattle, WA 98101

WHEN: Saturday, May 29th, 12:00 pm - 8:00 pm and Sunday, May 30th, 10:00 am - 8:00 pm

HOW: For more information including volunteer registration, please visit http://www.salvationarmynw.org/haiti

PHOTO & INTERVIEW OPS:
► The multi-step assembly process: from bulk goods to finish product.
► Hundreds of volunteers (600 per shift) working in teams, assembling the meal packages.
► The “Meal o Meter” (showing count of meals assembled throughout the day)
► Multiple interview opportunities:

MEDIA CONTACT:

About The Salvation Army’s work in Haiti:

The Salvation Army has provided services to the people of Haiti since 1950. After the Jan. 12 earthquake, The 200 Salvation Army staff and officers throughout the country, responded immediately by serving the survivors with food, water, shelter, medical assistance and emotional and spiritual care. Today, The Salvation Army continues serving 20,000 displaced individuals just in Port-au-Prince. To date, The Salvation Army has responded by packing and distributing 10 million meals, nearly a million gallons of water and nearly 30,000 people have received needed care from our medical teams.

While there is still significant immediate need that continues to be addressed, The Salvation Army is also beginning to plan for long-term recovery by focusing on both short term and long term solutions including building transitional housing sites.

About The Salvation Army:

The Salvation Army, an evangelical part of the universal Christian church, has been supporting those in need in His name without discrimination since 1865. Nearly 33 million Americans receive assistance from The Salvation Army each year through the broadest array of social services that range from providing food for the hungry, relief for disaster victims, assistance for the disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless and opportunities for underprivileged children. About 83 cents of every dollar raised is used to support those services in nearly 9,000 communities nationwide. For more information, go to http://www.salvationarmynw.org.