Reaching out to unseen needy families in Croatia, Bosnia and other parts of former Yugoslavia, hundreds of members of the Snow College Utah Stake packaged 40 tons of food into individual family boxes for shipment to that war-torn region.

And the 400 participants in the Feb. 11 project rebutted the notion that "haste makes waste" as they unloaded two truckloads of food, then sorted and repackaged it within the space of a few hours.Two large truckloads of food arrived at 10 a.m. from the Bishops' Central Storehouse in Salt Lake City on Saturday the 11th, and members of the stake's 12 wards unloaded 60 pallets in just under 30 minutes.

The main focus was then on repackaging the goods. From the pallets the items were laid out in the cultural hall of the institute of religion building in the order they would be placed into family-size boxes. That process took 45 minutes.

In the afternoon, members began an assembly line as they filled the boxes, with the participants working alternately in 20-minute shifts.

"I'm excited!" said Stake Pres. David Willmore. "It's marvelous to see everyone so happy and involved. They don't want to come off the line, even when it's time to switch."

With "boxers" on one side of the tables and "suppliers" on the other side, the goods were packed quickly.

The students packed 2,700 boxes. Each box is sufficient to provide a family of four food for two weeks.

To complete each box, a note of encouragement was placed inside. It read: "To our dearest friends, it is our prayer that this package will ease some of the burden you are feeling at this time of need. It has been a great blessing for us to take this opportunity to serve you, and we hope you will benefit from it as much as we have.

"May the Lord bless you. Love and prayers from members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attending Snow College in Ephraim, Utah."

One participant said, "I love this project because it means I am handling something that will go to people who need it."

The project was part of the ongoing international humanitarian service effort of the Church, according to Isaac C. Ferguson, director of humanitarian service for the Church. (See Feb. 11, 1995, Church News.)

"Family packs prepared in these projects are shipped to needy areas stricken by war, famine or natural disasters," he said. "These food boxes are usually prepared at Bishops' storehouses for convenience, and this is the first time we have shipped the food to an outlying area to be sorted and boxed. With all of the people they had and the excellent organization, it went very well."

Additional shipments to the war-torn area of former Yugoslavia are planned over the next few months.

Preparing individual family packs before they are shipped makes them ready to hand to individual families as soon as they arrive.

"Relief agencies we work with to distribute food - groups such as the Red Cross, Catholic Relief programs and CARE - like the way we do this. It's more efficient to put the packs together here than to ship the food in bulk and package it after it arrives in that country."