Feed My Starving Children - fall photoshoot donations

Last year around Christmastime I had the honor of spending a day at a Feed My Starving Children location. FMSC is a very unique organization that has a very real answer to world hunger. We took part in packing up actual meals (think the perfect nutritional "instant rice mix") that get sent to real kids who are starving each and every day. We heard wonderful stories of malnurished children who had been nursed back to health through the food source of FMSC. And we heard some tragic stories too. Desparate mothers who felt it was better to abandon or "dispose" of their child rather than let that child face the painful reality of a slow death via starvation. It is hard for me to write even now.

Hunter is 6 months old now and pretty relaxed; but in his "early days" :) he was a hungry and demanding baby. Even on a well balanced schedule, being fed every 3 hours with solid naps in between, when he woke up from his nap he would scream at the top of his lungs, like he was facing death itself, until he got his bottle. Sometimes it was hard not to laugh at him, so intense and upset over something that took just 3 minutes to prepare.

But even with my good sense of humor over the crying uproar, it passed through my mind many a times the horrible heart-wrenching reality that many mothers across the world hear their child scream in hunger and have nothing to feed them. It was then that I decided to do a fall fundraiser for FMSC.

Fall is my busiest time of year by far. For each regular family/child shoot in Oct, Nov, and Dec, I will be donating $10 to FMSC. While I can and will continue to support groups like FMSC and World Vision on my own, I knew this would also be a good chance to raise awareness about FMSC and what they do.

So check out www.fmsc.org and learn more about how you can help them on your own. I'm hoping to volunteer again this fall, but I do know their food packing sessions fill up fast - it is such a unique and hands-on opportunity that many church and school groups book their times far in advance. But take your family if you can (they even do kids birthday parties!) - you will not regret it and your familiy (as well as one across the world) will benefit from the experience.

(note: these photos are from the FMSC website, and photo credits belong to the designated FMSC photographer who took them).