During the 2023 Pay it Forward (PIF) Week Meals from the Heartland event, held in the Southwestern Community College (SWCC) Student Center gymnasium, on Wednesday, April 19, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., 87,048 meals were packaged—the highest total in meals packaged at SWCC in one day since the college began hosting the event in 2013.
Because of these efforts, 334 children will be fed for an entire year. Meals will be distributed locally, as well as worldwide. Check out the infographic above to see the entire impact of this one packaging event!
A huge thank you to the participating teams for this year’s event:
- Appalachia Service Project
- Benson Hill
- Bunn-O-Matic (BUNN)
- Crestmoor Ladies
- Creston fifth grade
- Creston High School robotics team
- East Union FFA
- First National Bank
- Greater Regional Health
- Heartland Management Alliance
- Holy Spirit Catholic Church
- Hometown Insurance/Mayflower School
- Hy-Vee
- Kiwanis & Rotary Clubs
- Macksburg United Methodist Church
- Michaels Foods
- Phi Theta Kappa
- Platte Center Presbyterian Church
- RE Lewis
- Salem Lutheran Church
- Stalker Chevrolet/KSIB Radio
- State Savings Bank & PCSB
- SWCC Employees
- SWCC Student Senate
- Viterra
- Walmart
- Wellman Dynamics
- Youth Council
Sponsors
- Anonymous Donor
- Cromwell Church
- SWCC Ag Club
The Meals from the Heartland organization, based in Des Moines, has been in existence since 2008. During the first SWCC event, held in 2013, 12,000 meals were packaged in two and a half hours. The Union County Development Association (UCDA) became a partner in SWCC’s event in 2016. The UCDA’s Lead UC groups now assist throughout the day during this annual event as well.