The Story Behind My Robert D. Ray Iowa Shares Humanitarian Award with the World Food Prize
July 29, 2024
On July 31st, I was honored to receive the Robert D. Ray Iowa Shares Humanitarian Award with the World Food Prize for our work in Africa to alleviate food insecurity for thousands of children. It is a good time to reflect on all those who helped me along this journey. First, I would like to thank God for calling me into His army and giving me this assignment. The award is named after Governor Ray, who served as governor of Iowa between 1969 and 1983. After his term, he became president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa. In that role, he called me one afternoon and thanked me for starting a free medical clinic in my small Methodist Church in Polk City. We visited for several minutes about my vision for starting several free clinics in churches and community centers throughout central Iowa. He immediately pledged $40,000 to assist in starting ten additional clinics, which we accomplished over the next two years. That network of free clinics is now known as Free Clinics of Iowa and has grown to 30 clinics scattered throughout the state, serving thousands of impoverished Iowans.
The vision for Blessman International to start feeding children in Iowa came from another distinguished Iowan, Michael Simonson, an architect and Des Moines City councilman. Mike got this vision for feeding African children while on a mission trip with Blessman International, doing eye tests, and distributing glasses to children needing them in rural African schools. Mike spent some time visiting with one of the teachers at a school where we were working. This teacher pointed out to Mike that many of her students were malnourished and not able to learn because of lethargy due to severe hunger. Michael pondered this for several days as he prayed for these children.
When he got back to his office in Des Moines, he called me to come in to see him. He was anxious to share his reflections about his mission trip with us. Seeing and meeting many of these starving children broke his heart. He could see the long-term effects of this malnutrition on a whole generation of African children. He told me, “Doc, I am going to help you feed those kids.” He took out his checkbook, wrote a check for $120,000, and showed me the check made out to the Des Moines Community Foundation. He then told me we could only access these funds after we matched them. It took about nine months, and we ended up with a quarter of a million dollars. We then planned to feed 300 children five days a week for two years. We knew well that once we started feeding the children, we would have a strong obligation to continue beyond the first two years. The next step in our feeding program grew out of a partnership with Lutheran Church of Hope, Meals from the Heartland, and Convoy of Hope. MFTH and COH have both now grown into large non-profit organizations where thousands of volunteers gather to package food packets to be distributed to malnourished children in several different countries.
Blessman International has focused on Southern Africa, where we have 12 feeding hubs strategically placed so that we can impact a good share of Southern Africa. Each hub receives 1 or 2 shipping containers of the MFTH food packets each year, then distributes the food packets out to 30 to 120 smaller feeding sites. Each feeding site then feeds 30 to 100+ children up to 5 days/week.
Ambassador Terry Branstad, current president of the World Food Prize Foundation, along with Governor Kim Reynolds, current governor of Iowa, presented me with a humanitarian award. Each of them has volunteered to serve with us on short-term mission trips and has significantly benefited our ministry over the past several years.
While it is important to recognize and thank the dignitaries who have assisted me over the many years to be considered for the humanitarian award, I must always remember the 50+ staff members who do the hard work in the trenches both in America and Africa. Finally, I wish to recognize and thank the thousands of children in Africa that we have grown to love. They have become our extended family and have given my wife and me incredible joy that is difficult to imagine until you experience it.
My prayer request is that our partnership with MFTH and COH will remain strong and fruitful. I also have a praise report that our daughter-in-law, Alex, is back home with us at Shikwaru and feeling good after spending a few weeks in the hospital. Your prayers for her have been effective and appreciated.