03/31/06: Give a Fish vs. Teach to Fish

I had a wonderful phone conversation with Manna from Heaven today. It was a true epiphany. I was checking in regarding the Girl Scout Gold Award Doll Project from Hannah in CT. During the conversation, Lois from Manna from Heaven mentioned the Heifer Project. They want to receive livestock to raise their own food since it's so hard to buy. Over the holidays, we had some amazingly generous donors. I had mentioned to my husband that a $250 donation from one of our friends would feed a family for a year and he scoffed at me. "How is that possible?!" I was figuring that the donation would cover shipping for donated food for the entire year. Well, today I purchased over 200 chickens that are being delivered to Myra, KY next week. The families will raise half for food and half for eggs.

In addition, we are going to do a Seed Campaign in the hopes that people will ship out vegetable seeds to Manna from Heaven so that people can grow and can their own food. Lois was thrilled with this idea and we are going to start this new campaign immediately.

Anyone who wants to help should send any type of vegetable seeds to:

Focus America Project
c/o Manna from Heaven
PO Box 43
Myra, KY 41549

I love exciting days and, today, we truly fed a village! Or at least took the first steps to providing them the tools to feed themselves.

P.S. If you want to donate more chickens, please email me at szimmerman@focusamerica.org. $50 buys 100 fryer chickens and $150 sends 100 egg layers (plus shipping and vaccination which Focus America will cover).