On September 17th, 2026, over 40 Clear Creek Amana FFA students hosted a meal packing event at East Ridge Elementary School. Together, FFA members and 280 5th-grade elementary students from East Ridge Elementary, packed 32,400 meals, which is enough to feed around 120 kids for an entire year.

FFA student volunteers, Meals For the Heartland and staff help set up, and create the systems to make all the meals within a short few hours. The 5th grade students work side by side measuring, weighing, sealing bags and filling boxes full of packaged meals.

Meals from the Heartland is built on the mission of “empowering people to save starving children”. The 32,400 meals that CCA FFA members and East Ridge Elementary students packed are being sent across the world, including South Africa, Haiti, El Salvador, Ghana, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Antigua, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Honduras, Mexico, Tanzania, Ukraine, and others.

The Meals from the Heartland event at East Ridge Elementary School was sponsored by CCA FFA, Iowa Corn, Iowa County Cattlemen, and the CCA Foundation. 

To date, FFA members have packaged 122,448 meals.