Twenty people will gather at Oak Park Mall Saturday morning to take on a sizable challenge: 7,240 meals.

It’s not an eating competition, but a service project. A score of volunteers from Austin’s First United Methodist Church will package meals for starving children from 10 a.m. to noon. The packaging, made possible through the Kids Against Hunger organization, will take place in a hub of the mall the organization opened in December.

KAH packages specially formulated, protein-rich meals that give necessary nutrients to starving children. Each bag KAH prepares contains six meals. The food may go to adults as well as children, Flink said.

“We decided to support their efforts to have a Kids Against Hunger organization right here in Austin,” said Sunnee Flink, associate lay leader of the mission outreach group at the church.

Flink said they asked the congregation at First United Methodist to support their food packing efforts after making the decision to contribute to KAH in February. For one person to work steadily at meal packaging for two hours, that person must contribute $84 to cover the necessary supplies.

“[The church] donated 1/3 of our Easter offerings to it,” she said. The church then raised funds through a number of activities, including a goulash night. Organizers had a specific goal in mind.

“It had to culminate by this Saturday in order for us to support 20 people packaging food the entire two-hour time,” Flink said.

The group met that goal and then some, raising more than $1,680 since February to support the effort. Each packaged meal costs the group 23 cents to put together. When multiplied by the number of meals they hope to assemble, the total cost still leaves a little extra money the church can put toward a second packaging date, Flink said.

She would like to see the event become a regular occurrence in the future, but other church efforts will want to draw from the same funds. First United Methodist is contributing to efforts to eradicate malaria in Africa by 2015, and sends missions to Haiti and Louisiana. She hopes the church can put together another packaging event by January.

KAH Director Tim Stromer said the Austin location, which Oak Park Mall provided at no charge to the organization, has prepared more than 20,000 meals to be sent out since it opened. These meals will be delivered to the organization’s Mankato office for distribution.

Currently, three people run the Austin location, which orders packaging supplies every week or two. They operate mostly by appointment on nights and weekends, since the workers also have day jobs.

“If they had enough volunteer leaders, they might be able to open it up during the day,” Stromer said.

Volunteer groups range from companies to boy scouts to church groups, he said. Typically, individuals are only accepted if they can tack onto an existing group.

Saturday’s event will be the church’s first volunteer effort for KAH, which itself is non-denominational, but their charity has extended to other organizations in the past.

“First United Methodist Church is big on dispelling hunger,” Flink said, adding that the church has regularly provided meals to the Salvation Army for over a decade. Members of the congregation have collected nonperishable food items since the beginning of the year. So far, she estimates the church has collected over 400 cans of food and $300.

The church has also been involved with Feed My Starving Children in the past. Flink said KAH has a lot in common with that program, as both target the issue of hunger and St. Paul native Richard Proudfit founded both programs.

“Kids Against Hunger focuses more on children in the United States rather than the entire world,” Flink said.

The destination of Saturday’s meals has not yet been determined, Flink said. KAH will decide where to send them based on where the greatest need is. Globally, a child dies every six seconds from hunger, she said.

While Flink plans to contribute again within the congregation, she encourages everyone to get involved.

“We’re hoping others get on board with it,” she said.