Today's my last day in Montana and tomorrow I head over the sea to London.  I'm happy to have been with Aaron this past week, and will miss him and the kids these next few days as I spend them in London.  
Today's guest post is from my friend Amy.  I met her for the first time in the break room at the radio station when I worked at KVET.  Funny thing is that we never really connected until I was done working there.  Amy works on the Bobby Bones show and I love how she's using her influence to help the least of these around the world!  Enjoy her words and think about donating to this great cause!

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I highly advise not making a trip to the grocery store fresh off a trip from Haiti… this might result in a breakdown in the produce section because you can't seem to decide which organic apples to buy. Somewhere between “Should I get Granny Smith? Oh wait. Maybe Gala. No. Fiji is for sure the best.” tears will start rolling down your face. You'll start wondering why you have the luxury of picking between 30984309 different types of apples, while some have never even tasted the goodness of a nice crisp apple (perhaps with maple almond butter?!!)

Really, my crying had nothing to do with anyone tasting a dumb apple, but everything to do with the orphanage I'd just spent time with and how they could teach me a thing or two about being grateful. I guarantee you they don't freak out because they can't decide what kind of rice to buy. There's white rice and more white rice. Their meals consist of either cornmeal, rice, beans, or maybe soup and I for sure have never seen the kids get the proper amount of fruits and veggies (something I stress about for my own body). They occasionally get mangos and plantains, but that is a rare treat. Ain't nobody got time for food pyramid requirements when the orphanage is barely making budget each month. They do their best to get 3 meals a day, a snack and clean drinking water on the table for 100+ kids every single day. It's not easy.

Well, that's where 30 Abes comes in!

“30 Abes is a campaign to promote an awesome Food Packing Event that's happening in Nashville. 30 Abes actually represents 30 cents, which is the cost of one life sustaining meal… AND thanks to TEEMHaiti, Numana and the Bobby Bones Show, volunteers will gather to pack 500,000 meals!!! The goal is to break the world record for number of hunger relief meals packaged in an hour, so GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS will be on site to watch it all go down!”

I'm sure we could have just gone with a normal food packaging event, but I work with a bunch of over-achievers and they like to break world records and stuff. Finding the thousands of volunteers and raising the funds to package 500,000 meals isn't stressing me out at all (read: I might pull my eyeballs out), but when I think of my friends in Haiti…. its all worth it.

If you want to see the sweet faces that will benefit from 30 Abes then watch the video below about Maison Des Enfants De Dieu (the orphanage in Port-au-prince that forever has my heart):

We'd love for anyone and everyone to get involved with 30 Abes. If you don't want to help, then you just don't like feeding orphans. Yeah. I said it. Okay. Now that that's settled, here are 3 ways you can help…

1) You can buy this really awesome and comfy “30 Abes” shirt:

Click HERE to buy shirts. Each one sold will provide 20 meals. *Confession: We sacrificed a few meals to make sure this shirt was nice and actually something you'd want to wear. I feel like an awful human saying that, but I'd feel even worse knowing that I sold you a crappy shirt.

2) You can make a donation for meals:

50 Meals – $15.00
100 Meals – $30.00
150 Meals – $45.00
Table Sponsor – $1,000.00

Click HERE to donate meals!

3) You can volunteer the day of the event (September 28th at Nashville Municipal Auditorium):

If you live in Nashville or near buy, we'd love to have your help! If you don't live close by…. ROAD TRIP! Load up the car and bring the fam to Nashville for a weekend of fun. Think about it… you'll officially be able to tell people you've broken a world record while feeding kids at the same time. It's a win-win situation.

Click HERE for volunteer info (registration will open in August).

Well. There you have it. That's 30 Abes in a nutshell. If this is a success, it will help the orphanage save a ton on food costs. They can then put that money towards other expenses and getting kids out of the city ASAP. There is countryside land purchased, but they still need funds to break ground on the new orphanage out there and the money saved on food can help with that. Also, I'd love to see those kiddos get a few more mango treat days.

I'd like to thank Jamie for letting me crash her blog and I hope you've walked away from this post knowing that its okay to cry over apples and that some pretty neat people in Haiti need our help!

Amy

P.S. Just so you know the heart of where this food will be going… Pierre, the director of the orphanage, says he excited to have all of these meals because he'll now be able to share food with their neighbors and other orphanages close by that are in need. How kind is that? He has the biggest heart ever.

About The Bobby Bones Show
Broadcasting live from WSIX in Nashville, The Bobby Bones Show airs weekday mornings from 5 to 10 a.m. CT. Each day, hosts Bobby Bones, Lunchbox and Amy welcome the biggest names in country music and entertain listeners with their unique mix of pop-culture news and information, crazy stunts and hilarious conversations. Nationally syndicated by Premiere Networks, The Bobby Bones Show broadcasts on Country radio stations nationwide and is also available on iHeartRadio.com and the iHeartRadio mobile app, Clear Channel’s all-in-one free digital listening service. For more information, please visit www.BobbyBones.com.

About TEEMHaiti
Amy, Christy and Tiffany founded a little non-profit called TEEMHaiti Foundation earlier this year. The mission of TEEMHaiti is to teach, empower, equip, and mentor the people of Haiti working with men, women, and children to provide hope and encouragement with a goal of impacting the future by investing in the people and making a lasting change. More info can be found here: www.teemhaiti.com.

About Numana
Numana, Inc. is a non-­profit 501©3 public charity formed in August 2008, as an international hunger relief organization. Numana's mission is to “Empower people to serve the starving” through facilitating food packaging events across the country and even internationally. Through their simple packaging process, over 160,000 volunteers have packaged 27 million meals to send to areas of most need. The packaging events allow for people of all ages, including children, to participate. More info here: