By Wally Kennedy
Globe Staff Writer
JOPLIN, Mo. —
Mary and Eugene Moffet sat next to each other for two hours Saturday sealing plastic bags filled with rice, chicken flavoring, dried vegetables and soy meal.
As fast as one box of bags was sealed, another was put in its place.
“I don’t know how many I have sealed,” said Mary Moffet, 70, with a laugh. “I have done so many I don’t want to even think about it.
“That little boy is a runner. He brings us the bags that need to be sealed. After you do it a while, you get it figured out.’’
The Moffets, representing Forest Park Baptist Church, were part of a well-oiled machine in which 200 people in two-hour shifts worked at 60 tables on Saturday at The Bridge, assembling 282,000 meals for the Haitian relief effort.
Eugene Moffet, 71, the great-great-great-grandson of E.R. Moffet, the first mayor of Joplin, said, “This is what it is all about, helping someone else. We are helping a neighbor who needs to be helped. By doing that, it helps us too.’’
At another table, Dennis and Julie Ware, with Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Webb City, placed plastic stickers on bags that featured two Scriptures and this message in Creole: “Joplin is praying for Haiti.’’
Dennis Ware, a manufacturing engineer with EaglePicher, who was slapping stickers on bags as fast as he could, said, “I think I’m up to 300 bags right now. This is not something I do every day.’’
The food assembly line was on the second floor at The Bridge. A forklift, operated by Dan Mitchell, director of The Bridge, was used to lift ingredients to the floor. Once the individual bags were filled, measured, sealed, boxed and wrapped in protective plastic, the forklift hauled them to a loading zone. A Con-way Truckload unit will carry the food to Tulsa, Okla. From there, it will be shipped in a container to Haiti.
Mitchell said 182,000 meals were created between 6 a.m. and noon. The final two shifts would take care of the last 100,000 meals. He said people from 20 churches turned out for the food drive.
For more of this story, pick up a copy of Sunday’s Joplin Globe or register for our E-Edition here at joplinglobe.com.
