Inasmuch Sends 277K Meals to Ukraine

June 11, 2022, is a day to remember for the Inasmuch ministry. On that date, Inasmuch conducted a food packing event in Knoxville when 277,000+ meals were packed and shipped to war-torn Ukraine. It was by far the largest such event Inasmuch has ever done.

David Crocker, Founder of Inasmuch, said: “Everyone is moved by the devastation and death brought on by the war in Ukraine. Suddenly, one day we realized we should use our expertise in serving people in need to alleviate some of the suffering in Ukraine, so we discussed the possibility of conducting a huge food packing event and sending the food to Ukraine.”

The Inasmuch staff was awed by how quickly and miraculously it came together. Within 24 hours of the decision to move forward with the idea all the money for the event was raised (more than $50K); a trucking company in Morristown, Tennessee offered to go to South Florida, pickup all the equipment and supplies for the event and bring them to Knoxville free of charge; a place to stage the event was secured; and arrangements were made to ship the finished product to Poland/Ukraine free of charge by the organization Convoy of Hope.

The biggest challenge was the recruitment of enough volunteers to pull off such a significant undertaking. With the help of churches and local media, we were able to sign up 1100 volunteers about a thousand of whom came. Among the volunteers was a small group of Ukrainian women. One of them spoke to the volunteers at her shift thanking them for what they were doing to provide much needed food to their fellow countrymen. In a follow-up email she said “HUGE thank you to Operation Inasmuch and hundreds of volunteers here in Knoxville for preparing, packing, and delivering over 280,000 meals for Ukrainian refugees in Poland! You guys are amazing! This will make a big difference in quality of lives of those who lost everything due to war!”

Here are some of metrics from the event:

• 980 volunteers spread over 4 2-hour shifts
• 56 churches represented
• 44 organizations represented (schools, civic clubs, businesses, etc.)
• Dozens of unaffiliated individuals and families who just wanted to serve
• 277,592 meals prepared and shipped to Poland/Ukraine

Crocker said: “One of the most gratifying aspects of the Ukraine food pack was the diversity of volunteers—many people from many places coming together to serve people in need on the other side of the globe. And some of them could not have been expected to come such as a group from a homeless ministry, disabled people, and all ages from a few months (strapped to Mom) to ninety somethings.” See Crocker’s blog Anyone Can Serve Others. It was a true community wide compassion ministry event.