CAVE SPRINGS, Ark. — The Pack Shack is asking for the community’s help to pack meals to send to Poland for Ukrainian refugees. Their goal is to pack 50,000 meals by the end of the month with help from volunteers.
Kirsten McKinney with Central States Manufacturing in Lowell says they will have a group volunteering at the Pack Shack for the fourth time on Thursday.
“What’s really neat about this is typically at the Pack Shack we give back to the community that are here local in Northwest Arkansas but this time, it’s not that it means more but it’s pretty neat to be able to make an impact on something that’s so far away,” she said.
The Pack Shack is looking for groups from four to 30 to come in and volunteer.
“Just a group of 25 of them was able to do 7,000 plus meals in an hour and 35 minutes or so. Just giving up an hour and a half of your time or two hours of your time, you are going to make a huge impact,” said Grant Clemens, Pack Shack operations manager.
Clemens says they have currently packed 8,000 meals.
“When things like this come up, even though it’s such a sad and somber thing that we are dealing with and the people are having to deal with there, people are very energized by the idea of getting out and helping,” he said.
He says volunteers will scoop rice, beans and spices out of bins into a funnel, weigh them, seal them and put them in boxes.
“We are able to make such a big impact for somebody all the way across the world. And a neighbor isn’t just someone here in Northwest Arkansas, a neighbor is also someone across the world,” Clemens said.
They will be sending all the meals packed here to the Springfield organization Convoy of Hope early in April who will ship them to Poland for the refugees.
If you would like to volunteer to pack meals, you can sign up on the pack shacks website. You can also donate directly to the cause.
DOWNLOAD THE 5NEWS APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE 5NEWS APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KFSM in the Channel Store.
For Fire TV, search for "KFSM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com.