More than 20,000 food packages for families in Bosnia, Croatia and Albania are being prepared by hundreds of Church members for shipment in the next few months.
The food packages are being donated by the Church and are mostly produced within the Church's Welfare Services system, according to Isaac Ferguson, director of Humanitarian Services.Volunteers from various local stakes are preparing the 30-pound boxes at Welfare Square in Salt Lake City, and at bishops' storehouses in Sandy, West Valley City and Ogden, Utah.
He said that packaging the supplies into individual boxes for families will make the food easier to distribute. He estimated that one box will feed a small family for a week to 10 days. Similar food packages have recently been sent to Haiti and to Vladivostok, Russia.
Each food box contains 10 pounds of flour, four pounds of dry beans, two pounds of rice, a canister of dried milk that will make seven liters (about 7.4 quarts) of milk, a bottle of cooking oil, and eight cans of beef products, such as stew, chunks, and chili. All but the rice and cooking oil are produced by the Church.
Some 2,700 family food boxes were shipped to Albania and 8,100 boxes to Bosnia by the end of November, said Brother Ferguson. Another 10,800 boxes for refugees in Croatia will be transported in monthly shipments between now and February 1995.
By February, some 325 tons of food will have been shipped to needy families in the three countries, said Brother Ferguson. In addition to the boxes, 80 tons of flour for pasta products will be shipped to Bosnia. Shipments to all three areas will also include packages of basic medical supplies.
The distributions are being made through local LDS leaders, the American Red Cross of International Services, and through Caritas, a Catholic relief agency.