Collier had known the overwhelming statistics: 25,000 people die every day from hunger-related causes; every six seconds a child dies of hunger. But it wasn’t until January 2009, when he, his wife and four members of Northwood Church visited one of Africa’s oldest and worst slums—Mathare—that they finally hit home. “We were totally overwhelmed by what we saw,” Collier says. “Eight people, many children orphaned by AIDS, living in 8-by-10-foot shacks in dirt, desolation and despair.”

Amidst this bleak existence was the light of Mathare Community Outreach (MCO), a school and orphanage serving 2,000 children. “The children made an incredible impact on us with their big smiles, laughter, songs and happiness in the middle of this perceived hopelessness,” Collier says. So when he found out that, due to the global economic crisis MCO’s meal program would soon come to an end, he knew he could do something. “After all,” he says, “we live in a wealthy, upper-middle class American suburb. Our whole community could help!”

And so, the planning began. Collier began by contacting Pastrano, founder of Impact Lives, a Maple Grove-based nonprofit humanitarian organization that focuses on fighting world hunger. Pastrano orchestrates numerous food-packing events across the Twin Cities every year.