March 28, 2024

Newton company working to reduce hunger

Newton-based Multi Packing and Printing, Inc. is partnering with Seigwerk of Des Moines to help feed those in need.

Through a joint effort, the companies are donating time and supplies to Meals from the Heartland, a nonprofit organization composed of volunteers who package meals for delivery to starving people around the world as well as in the United States.

“My husband used to work with Seigwerk for about 11 years, and when we started our own printing company in Newton, we continued to work with Seigwerk because he knows the ink system so well,” Multi Packing and Printing President Franchette Braaksma said. “The project was brought to us, and we found that they had been using a broker and not getting the packaging direct, so we knew we could save them money.”

The companies came together to print the packages which hold the meals. Being family-owned businesses with a longtime working partnership, both organizations felt that this was a perfect fit to give back to the community.

While Siegwerk has donated the ink for this venture, contributions were made by other co-suppliers including RR Donnelly, Valley Packaging Supply, Elite Extrusion, and Flex Films. Approximately 92 cents of every dollar donated to Meals from the Heartland goes into the food packaging and transportation around the world. Any savings on the packaging costs is just that many more meals that can be packaged, Seigwerk said.

“Our organization is truly blessed by the relationship we have with Siegwerk. Their heart and passion for our mission to feed the starving in Iowa, the United States and around the world never ceases to amaze me,” Heartland Director of Operations Greg Dehaai said. “The team at Siegwerk contacted Multi Packaging and Printing with an idea to try and reduce the price of the meal pouches for our Annual Hunger Fight. Through the generosity of these two companies and the other vendors involved, the reduced costs will provide more than 70,000 meals for kids who are going without. It is because of businesses like these that we are making a difference in world hunger.”

Braaksma said she contacted vendors who she works with on a daily basis to see if they would participate.

“They were all very generous,” Braaksma said. “I also contacted the pouching company and they donated as well. It was a big collaboration.”

Additional time making plates and getting the color separation together from Braaksma’s art house were donated, continuing to cut costs and giving more to those in need at lower production prices.

The pouches printed in Newton will be used at Heartland’s Annual Hunger Fight event held Aug. 31 through Sept. 3 in Des Moines.

“We collaborated on the first one million pouches to help them pack more meals for children,” Braaksma said.

For more information about Meals from the Heartland, visit its website at mealsfromtheheartland.org.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com