North Idaho Christian School students package over 10,000 meals for Bangladesh

HAYDEN — Packaging over 10,000 meals in one day is no easy task, but the students at North Idaho Christian School met the challenge with enthusiasm Thursday.

“Do you guys think you can do it?” NICS communications director Jennifer Scott asked a class of first graders before they began packing.

Scott’s question was met with joyful shouts of “yeah!” that echoed throughout the gymnasium before students got to work bagging meals of lentils and rice. The meals will ultimately be distributed to schools and orphanages in Bangladesh as part of the school’s Feed the Need campaign.

“It’s part of the mission of our school, to be the hands and feet of God,” Scott said.

Kids from every grade level worked in shifts to get the job done, with the oldest students helping the youngest through each step of assembling the meals.

This year marked NICS’s seventh Feed the Need campaign.

“They get really excited about it,” Scott said. “It fills our hearts.”

NICS students were educated about the South Asian country of Bangladesh in the weeks leading up to Thursday’s packing day. Bangladesh is a country of high need, with a high percentage of its population living in poverty.

“It’s great because we’re feeding children that don’t have enough,” said eighth grader Moses Holton.

Between the students, NICS staff and parent volunteers, it took about 250 people in multiple shifts to package a whopping total of 10,080 meals.

“We’re feeding God’s people,” student Isabella Merrill said.

Feed the Need is accompanied by a six-week fundraiser. As of Thursday, the school had raised just over $50,000, according to Scott.