Founders Floyd and Kathy Hammer's were on the brink of retirement when their lives suddenly changed. After a friend invited the Floyd and Kathy to Tanzania, East Africa, to remodel an old leprosy hospital and to build an AIDs hospice, they went without hesitation. With Floyd and Kathy being successful entrepreneurs to begin, they made their first trip to Tanzania in 2003, where they had a two month construction program in Nkungi village located in the Singida Region. On their voyage, the Hammers faced a heartbreaking situation- children in the village were dying of hunger. After Kathy and Floyd witnessed this, they wasted no time helping the village.

Floyd purchased truckloads of corn, which they could barter for the grain. Because Floyd and Kathy knew the villagers had almost nothing with which to trade, they asked for construction supplies and local pastor suggested "baskets." To their surprise, they saw hundreds of women approaching with stunning hand-woven grass baskets to the barter site. One by one, they traded baskets for grain.

Kathy asked leaders in each village what they needed to make their villages sustainable, and they named four essential things: water, food, medicine, and education. The Outreach mission created its base on those four needs, which are the four promises of Outreach. Over the last 17 years, Outreach has helped package around 580 million meals that have been distributed across America and around the world. At OLHMS, we are proud to host the 9th annual Feed 6 Packaging Event that will help feed starving people around the world.