I Remember When… I Found Hunger in Center Grove

The Larry Moore Story

By Tia Nielsen / Photos Tia Nielsen / KAH-Greenwood / Haiti photos: Hilda Perez for Food for the Poor

Top to bottom (left to right): Three Guatemalan girls eagerly await dinner with their KAH food bags / Packaging 3,000 meals in two hours is hands on fun, has a fast learning curve, and each group sees big results / Village of Hope was built after the deadly earthquake of 2010 in Haiti. The KAH-Greenwood food is ready to unload and distribute / Larry Moore and friends lift a batch of KAH food cooked over an open fire in an outdoor kitchen in Village of Hope, Haiti / Grateful Village of Hope schoolgirls enjoy a KAH lunch. Uncooked bags of food were distributed to the families of the kids.
Top to bottom (left to right): Three Guatemalan girls eagerly await dinner with their KAH food bags / Packaging 3,000 meals in two hours is hands on fun, has a fast learning curve, and each group sees big results / Village of Hope was built after the deadly earthquake of 2010 in Haiti. The KAH-Greenwood food is ready to unload and distribute / Larry Moore and friends lift a batch of KAH food cooked over an open fire in an outdoor kitchen in Village of Hope, Haiti / Grateful Village of Hope schoolgirls enjoy a KAH lunch. Uncooked bags of food were distributed to the families of the kids.

 

“I remember when I was totally ignorant about hunger,” says Larry Moore, Center Grove resident since 2004 and founder and executive director of Kids Against Hunger-Greenwood. Learning about the face of hunger in America, and yes, Center Grove, launched a new beginning for this former corporate businessman. You might say it was love at first sight.

While growing up in Kansas, Moore’s uncles had farms, so the thought of anyone not having enough food was inconceivable.

In 2007, Moore’s then employer in Indiana asked him to check out the unique food packing events that Kids Against Hunger can arrange for businesses, churches or community groups to do together. The efficient system of supplying highly nutritious food to the hungry around the world that the national Kids Against Hunger nonprofit had put in place amazed Moore. Additionally, the fun generated when a group of individuals worked together to pack thousands of meals in mere hours was exhilarating. Moore recalls, “I just fell in love with it!”

The scope of hunger internationally and in Johnson County was eye-opening. “I learned through Kids Against Hunger and by talking with volunteers at area food pantries,” says Moore.

A new forklift joined the KAH "family" in December. Larry Moore (right) said it will double their warehouse capacity. Ron Pierce (left) is the Events manager to contact when a group wants to plan a food packing event.
A new forklift joined the KAH “family” in December. Larry Moore (right) said it will double their warehouse capacity. Ron Pierce (left) is the Events manager to contact when a group wants to plan a food packing event.

Stereotypes proved to be false. He discovered that 99.9 percent of those in crisis and needing food were hardworking and loathed seeking help.

“Things happen in life,” Moore notes. “I’ve seen a consistent pattern of people living life and being in the habit of helping others. Then their company goes out of business or downsizes. In many cases, these people had been donating to food pantries, and now they must ask for help. They are embarrassed. As soon as they get a job, they bring food to the pantry. They are grateful to not have to ask for help now.”

Moore celebrated Christmas 2009 by founding KAH-Greenwood as an independent nonprofit “satellite” packaging location of the national Kids Against Hunger out of New Hope, Minn. Six months later, he was working full time as the demand mushroomed, particularly due to the needs in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

KAH offers a team-oriented system to rapidly package a nutritionally dense, fortified formula of soy, rice and dehydrated vegetables in a bag that feeds six. The dry mixture was developed for starving children. A team can safely pack 3,000 meals during a two-hour packing event.

A portion of the food packed goes to central Indiana families through local food pantries, Midwest Food Bank and Gleaners. The group packing the food consults with Moore and his team to select the recipient of their efforts. The delivery can then be tracked online.
Each bag that feeds six is placed in a box holding 36 bags, which become 216 meals. Thirty-three boxes (cartons) fit on a pallet. A pallet will serve 7,128 people. For food headed out of the country, a 40-foot shipping container has to be filled holding 38 pallets. That container equals 270,864 meals. That is the same as feeding everyone in Johnson, Morgan, Shelby and Brown counties, with 12,000 meals left over.

Moore’s background includes experience traveling internationally in the process of developing new products and programs. That “gave me an understanding of other cultures and the challenges of developing nations. Now combining the challenge of a fast-growing organization with the fulfilling nature of our work is truly a blessing!”

Kids Against Hunger-Greenwood Inc.
Mail: P.O. Box 37, Greenwood, IN 46142New physical address, as of Oct. 1, 2013:
5230 Park Emerson Drive, Suite A, Indianapolis, IN 46203
Office: 317-429-9876
Cell: 317-777-1074
Larry.Moore@kah-greenwood.org
kah-greenwood.org

You may be wondering, but does it taste good? The Inter Church Food Pantry of Johnson County writes on the KAH-Greenwood website: “I asked a mother if her children liked Kids Against Hunger meals. … She had put off making some for her family, but one day it was really all she had left to fix for dinner. She cooked up the packet, added some orange juice, soy sauce, and canned chicken, then baked it. That dinner is now her family’s favorite meal and they ask for it all the time.”

The church or corporate teams either raise the funds or donate to cover the cost of the food and its shipping or truck freight. Each meal runs 25 to 30 cents per meal. You can feed 40 children for $10.

Moore and the packing teams live by this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Now that is love.


Tia Nielsen is a freelance writer living in Greenwood who specializes in feature profiles. She loves music, history, and her grandchildren. You can reach her at Tia@tiaconnects.com.

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