Richard E. Seivert serves as the Director of Then Feed Just One and Mission Honduras LeMars. He retired from a thirty-nine year teaching, counseling, and coaching career at Gehlen Catholic High School in Le Mars, IA, to devote more time to directing Mission Honduras LeMars and Then Feed Just One. In 1999 he began Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras in response to a student's request for mission work. Since that time, the programs have sponsored more than 42 student (water projects and home building projects) and medical mission teams into Honduras.

Seivert states, “My involvement with the poor has been the most significant aspect of my life. We can learn a great deal about ourselves if we just get involved.”

If you would like more information, please contact him at

                                                                  309 8^th St. SW

                                                                  Le Mars, Iowa   51031

                                                                  712-540-3062

                                                                  rseivert2@yahoo.com

Linda Reichle is married to Bob Reichle. They have been blessed with three wonderful children and three grandchildren. They are truly the joy of her life.
 

She has worked at Community Bank in Alton for thirty-five years as a Cashier/Loan Officer and is now the Financial Management Assistant for American State Bank.
 

In 2006 she had the opportunity to join the Gehlen Mission Honduras team on their student service trip to Honduras and has been going along ever since. She has also been involved with Then Feed Just One for quite some time and loves watching as the children, both young and old, work together to provide these meals for the poor of the world.  She has had the opportunity to meet quite a few of the poor and unfortunate people of Honduras that get to benefit from the meals provided from these packing events. She states that it is always a very humbling experience.
 

Going to Honduras and working with Then Feed Just One is a service she feels she has been called to do to help the poor that have no one to turn to and no state or government aid.  It has become a passion that fills her heart in a way that she can’t begin to describe.

Carolyn Bickford retired from a 37-year teaching career at Gehlen Catholic School in Le Mars, IA, in 2016. Her husband Dan passed away in 2004. She has two sons and four grandchildren and enjoys every moment she can with them.

Carolyn became involved with Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras in 2005 when she chaperoned her first student mission trip. From that moment she knew that mission work was in her blood and has chaperoned every student trip since then. Carolyn is also quite active in Mission Honduras LeMars and Then Feed Just One. It was only natural that her love for the mission trips spill over into the other aspects of mission work. She stays busy with keeping the three websites running, making PowerPoints of the trips, and writing the annual newsletters. In 2014 she took over as the director of Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras, which means she both plans the student trips, and also leads each one in Honduras. One of her favorite quotes by Winston Churchill, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” can often be found in her PowerPoints because she truly believes that statement. Anyone who has become involved in mission work would readily agree.

If you’ve ever felt like you’d like to be more involved in helping others, please look at our websites and consider helping in whatever way you can. You’ll never regret it!

Karen Schroeder is a retired teacher living in Le Mars, IA, with her husband Jim. She has two daughters and two grandchildren.

Karen became acquainted with the hunger and hardships of the Honduran people while teaching at Gehlen Catholic High School.  One of her students was the first student to go to Honduras from Gehlen. That student accompanied a medical team that had ties to Gehlen. Upon the student’s return, she related to Karen the great need she saw there. Karen felt she could not sit idly by and was eager to serve on the Kids Against Hunger team, now known as Then Feed Just One. She has served on the committee since its inception. She firmly believes Then Feed Just One helps to fill a great need as we continue to answer the Lord’s call to minister to the poor of the world.

Russ Holzman is a lifelong resident of Le Mars, IA. He graduated from Gehlen Catholic School and is currently active in farming and trucking. At the age of 53 he decided to give up the single life and marry Terri. He now has four stepchildren and two step-grandchildren.

Russ became involved with Then Feed Just One in 2008, taking care of transportation. He discovered he enjoyed working with everyone at the packing events to help feed the hungry. "Life is Good!" Russ said.

Mark Schlesser is a lifelong resident of Le Mars, IA, and has been married to Shelly since 1980. They have three grown children who attended Gehlen Catholic School. Each one also participated on the Gehlen Catholic Mission trips to Honduras.

Mark was the Director of Maintenance at Gehlen Catholic School from 2002-2011, then became the Director of Maintenance at the Good Samaritan Society of Le Mars until March, 2018. He is currently back at Gehlen Catholic School as Director of Maintenance and Transportation.

Mark's involvement with Mission Honduras began in 2003, when he started driving the bus to the Omaha Airport for both the student and medical mission teams. That grew into participating on the 2004 mission trip with his oldest son Matt. Mark continues to drive most student mission groups to Omaha.

Mark, along with Charlie Oetken, co-chaired the first Kids Against Hunger (now Then Feed Just One) packing event at Gehlen Catholic School. He has continued to work at many more food packing events hosted by Then Feed Just One at Gehlen Catholic School. He focuses on the setup, forklift driving, as well as the loading and unloading of the trucks.

Having been to Honduras, Mark has seen first-hand the positive impact that the TFJO food has had on its many poor and hungry people. Playing a small part in helping with that mission gives him a warm feeling, knowing that he is doing God's work there.

Al Vonnahme lives in Villisca, IA, and currently works in management with Hy-Vee Foods in Clarinda, IA. He grew up on a farm north of Early, IA, where he attended Catholic schools for twelve years. He holds an Associates of Arts degree in agriculture from Iowa State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology from Briar Cliff University. He is married to Kimberly, an on-line literature and English teacher at Southeast Community College in Lincoln, NE. In his free time he teaches religious education classes, reads, gardens, and works on the 1890's Victorian home he and Kimberly share with their cat Gracie. Visiting children and grandchildren are his favorite activities.

He serves on the board of Then Feed Just One because he believes all life is precious and that everyone deserves to live a full life.

Ruth & Kevin Pratt are residents of Le Mars, IA, where they work on the family farm. Kevin alo works as a rural mail carrier. Through their daughters Catherine and Emily, Ruth and Kevin became interested in the Then Feed Just One packing events at Gehlen. Several years ago, they began volunteering for the event. In 2013 Kevin served as a chaperone on the Gehlen Catholic student mission trip to Mississippi. His daughter Catherine also participated in that mission trip. Kevin happily joined the Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras team as a chaperone in 2017.

Because of these mission trips, and the accounts their daughter Emily brought back from her Honduras' mission trip, Kevin and Ruth have supported Then Feed Just One's mission. They continue to partipate in providing food for those less fortunate in the world. They enjoy working with students and volunteers at various packing events and seeing how communities can come together to make a positive effect on the lives of others, both those around them and those who receive the packaged food in other countries. Kevin and Ruth are honored to serve and lead alongside board members who continue to make a positive difference and are an inspiration, to not only the people at packing events, but also to the extrmeely poor people who receive the food.

(On the left, Ruth & Kevin are pictured with their daughter Emily.).