Our weekly expression of gratitude for those who work to make this a better community:



Thanks to the thousands of volunteers who prepared 2.1 million meals for Feed My Starving Children.

A nonprofit Christian group based in Minnesota, Feed My Starving Children will provide 130 million meals this year for malnourished children around the world. Volunteers put together 2.1 million of those meals last week at Nappanee Missionary Church.

A meal — chicken, vegetables, soy and rice — costs 22 cents to produce. Church members raised money to buy the ingredients and organized the production line, staffed by 8,000 volunteers who altogether worked 20 two-hour shifts in groups of 400.

“A lot of factories, corporations, and organizations have come,” senior pastor Dave Engbrecht told an Elkhart Truth correspondent. “Today (Friday) we had over 300 fifth-graders from three or four different school districts. In the last two days we have had over 400 high school students from Jimtown that participated, and tonight (Friday) we’ll have over 200 Bethel College students.”

The church built up to 2.1 million meals, going from 300,000 in 2010 to 1.2 million last year. Engbrecht said that church members value Feed My Starving Children in part because it teaches the community about world hunger.

“I had heard about Feed My Starving Children and the work that they had done, and the fact that they create an experience on site that not only allows people to pack food that gets distributed around the world, but also educates them on the whole problem of world hunger. The experience does more than put food together. It impresses people that you’ve got to be involved in this thing,” Engbrecht said.

To church members and volunteers from throughout the community who gave of themselves to help the world’s most vulnerable children, thanks.



Thanks to the 60 brass players who sounded taps on Veterans Day at Rice Cemetery as part of Echo Taps. Thanks also to the local color and honor guards that joined the Indiana Patriot Guard to pay solemn respect to all those who served in defense of our nation.



And finally, thanks to the students and staff at Mary Daly Elementary who planted a tree Thursday in memory of Kristyana Jackson.

Kristyana, 7, was shot during an Aug. 17 home invasion and died two days later. She was a second-grader at Mary Daly. Her attackers remain at large.

Friends donated a Yoshino cherry tree in Kristyna’s memory because of its pink and white flowers.

“Those colors are representative of Kristyana,” Tony Kuruda told a Truth reporter. Kuruda’s wife, Teresa, suggested the tree.

The cherry tree will flower each spring, reminding Kristyana’s schoolmates, family and friends — the entire community — of the vibrant life she led.