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“Pella Meals from the Heartland,” a meal-packaging event to aid victims of the earthquakes in Haiti will take place Saturday, and the event is very close to reaching several goals. Brian Naaden, one of the organizers of the event, says the goal of 1,000 volunteers has almost been reached, with help still needed for some two-hour shifts in the afternoon.

Additionally, a fundraising campaign has raised over $80,000 of their $100,000 goal to purchase food to be packaged. Naaden says bringing a meal-packaging event to Pella was also a significant accomplishment for the event’s organizers.

“What I heard was a desire from people to have a packaging event right in the city of Pella,” said Naaden. “So when I communicated that to the Meals from the Heartland organization, the were very prompt to say, ‘we’ve heard that before, we’ll get back to you,’ and within 24 hours they had committed to holding their first remote packaging event outside of the Des Moines metro area and helping us be successful in our efforts within the community of Pella.”

Food packaged at the event will support missionary efforts currently in Haiti that have direct ties to the Pella Community. Naaden says those interested in volunteering can still show up at the event and hopefully a packaging team will be open to join.

The KNIA/KRLS Big Red Radio will also be at the event Saturday, playing music and providing updates from 8:00 a.m. to noon. The “Pella Meals from the Heartland” food-packaging event runs from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday at the Vermeer Global Pavilion in Pella.