Camp Mack helps feed the hungry locally, and in Guatemala.

Rex Miller, executive director of Camp Mack in Milford, Ind., has made a number of visits recently to the Milford Food Bank. During the fall, Camp Mack, recognizing great need in the local area, invited its Waubee Lake Association neighbors to join the camp staff in a food drive to support needs at the local bank. Lake area residents multiplied the amount of food that Camp Mack staff could give.

Camp Mack is also concerned about being a good global neighbor. With the financial and farming support of members of Goshen United Church of Christ, Bethany Church of the Brethren, Nelson Beer, and Max and Gary Tom, the Camp Mack 25-acre field has been farmed in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Proceeds from the sales of crops have gone to the Foods Resource Bank.

The corn and beans sold during these three years netted over $20,000 for a food security project benefiting Mayan families in 20 rural communities in Totonicapan, in the western part of Guatemala. Monies raised have helped Totonicapan organizations work with families to build wells, purchase hand pumps, learn to grow vegetable gardens, build cisterns and drip irrigation systems, build greenhouses and patio or yard gardens, work at reforestation, and receive training in marketing their agricultural surpluses at the municipal level.

The Foods Resource Bank report notes: "The families participating in the project in Totonicapan...are extremely grateful for the technical assistance and training received during the period, as well as the words of encouragement and gesture of friendship that they received."

--Phyllis Leininger is office manager for Camp Mack.

Source: 1/14/2009 Newsline