Thank You Service Learning Students!

Alex Thomas, a service learning student from College of DuPage

For the past several months, Humanitarian Service Project has enjoyed hosting a number of College of DuPage students through the school’s “Service Learning” program. Service Learning students at the school volunteer 20 hours at community organizations, like HSP, utilizing their time and talents to help others. We’ve had wonderful students through this program in the past, and the group we had this semester was no different. This spring, we were also lucky enough to students interested in doing service learning from Benedictine University and Elmhurst College come in to work alongside our COD helpers. They helped out around HSP in a myriad of ways by assisting with office procedures, working in our upstairs toy room, and helping out in our warehouse.

With the end of the school year fast approaching, these service learning students are finishing up their hours and leaving HSP. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank them for all their hard work, because they have done so much to help us reach out to the needy children and senior citizens we serve. 

Friends of HSP are in Fashion

         This Sunday, April 29th, the Humanitarian Service Project will be in fashion. The Bloomingdale Women’s Club has selected Humanitarian Service Project as the main charity to support with their 37^th Annual Charity Fashion Show and Luncheon, “All That Jazz.”

         Karole Kettering, Founder and Executive Director, will be attending not only to represent HSP, but also to support her daughter Becky and two granddaughters, Morgan and Olivia who will be models in the fashion show. We could not be represented by anyone better and they all are sure to have fun at such a fantastic event!

         The show will feature fashions from Carson Pirie Scott, Sassy’s Originals, Bella Bianca Couture, and York Furrier coats. The event will include raffles, door prizes, and is sure to be a lot of fun. The best part is it is for a good cause supporting the many people who rely on the programs the Humanitarian Service Project provides in the community.

         It is wonderful to be partnering with the Bloomingdale Women’s club on this event and we are proud they have selected us to be involved in this exciting day.

HSP Salutes Two Wonderful, Longtime Supporters!

A few days ago, HSP got a surprise visit from two of our longtime supporters, Jack Ulrich and Bill Klein. Both Jack and Bill have been active in serving the needy of the community for decades, so we thought it would only be appropriate to recognize them for their service. Bill has been a volunteer driver, delivering greatly needed groceries and other goods to the needy seniors in HSP’s project, for over 20 years, and Jack has been volunteering in the same capacity for over 10. Both Bill and Jack have been active helping the community outside of HSP through the Wheaton Kiwanis Club. Bill has been a member of the Kiwanis for 30 years, and Jack has been involved for 55 years!

We wanted to take this opportunity to say just how blessed HSP is to have the support of Bill, Jack, and all of the other members of the Wheaton Kiwanis Club. Their strong, enduring support has helped HSP make an impact in the lives of countless needy senior citizens and children over the years.

The reason Jack and Bill dropped by our center in the first place was to talk about Wheaton Kiwanis Club’s Annual Pancake Day, which held on at Gary United Methodist Church Saturday May 5^th from 7 a.m until Noon. This is the club’s 61^st Pancake Day, and is a very big, yearly event for the club. Admission to the event is free, and will feature a lot of family fun including raffles and, of course, some delicious pancakes. Any resources donated to the Wheaton Kiwanis through the event go directly to help the many community groups the club supports, including HSP!

HSP Bids Farewell to Two Fantastic Interns!

Michelle (left) Allie (right)

At the Humanitarian Service Project we host many interns who utilize their talents and skills to assist HSP in our projects to reach the needy senior citizens and children that we serve. The only thing we don’t like about these interns is that we will, inevitably, have to say goodbye. Today we at HSP gathered to do just that; to bid farewell to Allie Effrein and Michelle Koller, two of our wonderful, bright interns. Allie and Michelle both began their internships in January (in our Grant Writing and Public Relations departments respectively,) and have since become important fixtures of the HSP office.

Both Allie and Michelle are leaving HSP to begin new, exciting chapters in their lives. Michelle, whose last day was today, will be graduating from Wheaton College in a matter of days, and will be getting married a month later. She will be moving to Jackson, Mississippi with her husband-to-be who will be continuing his education there. Allie, who will be leaving HSP next week, has recently been hired by the non-profit organization Best Buddies in Chicago, where she will be continuing to use her skills and intelligence to help others.

Today, Michelle mentioned how happy she was that she ended up at HSP for her internship, saying that it was a very enjoyable and useful experience. Allie echoed these sentiments, when she expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to work in our grant writing department. Likewise, everyone at HSP feels truly blessed to have worked with two gifted and hard working interns like Allie and Michelle. Please join us in wishing Allie and Michelle good luck in all their future endeavors!

Waubonsie Valley High School Reaches Needy Seniors with Incredible Paper Drive!

Humanitarian Service Project wants to extend our deepest thanks to the student body of Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, for conducting a HUGE paper drive for the needy senior citizens that we serve. Our volunteer drivers Pete Laabs and Mike Reich picked the paper up from the school yesterday, and the collected items packed HSP’s two cargo vans to the brim.


This paper donation from Waubonsie was the result of a school-wide drive spearheaded by the student council. From the 11^th to the 20^th, students were encouraged to bring in paper towels, Kleenex, and toilet paper for the needy seniors in our Senior Citizen Project. The student’s got so behind the idea that, in this relatively short period of time, they collected so much paper that the donation took up a whole row in our warehouse!



With the cost of necessities like medication and rent, the needy senior citizens in our project cannot afford items that are necessary to live comfortably, like these paper products. For this reason, we want to thank all of the students from Waubonsie Valley High School, for reaching out to these seniors with this generous drive. If you too would like to touch the lives of senior citizens in need please call us at 630-221-8340.

Volunteering on the Run: Thank you to HSP’s Human Race Participants!

Humanitarian Service Project wants to thank and congratulate everyone who participated in the first annual DuPage Human Race on HSP’s behalf this past Saturday. We had a total of six people who volunteered for the 5K run and a walker in the 2 mile fitness walk. We want to thank all of them for getting active and helping to represent HSP in the community. We would like to recognize all of them here: Alex Gordy, Ginna Eriksen, Matt Eriksen, Noriko Valenta, Randy Leffelman, Jerry Rezabek, and Sripadma Arimilli.

(From Left: Matt Eriksen, Melissa Eriksen, Ginna Eriksen, and Alex Gordy.)

HSP staff member Alex Gordy participated in the event as his first ever 5k run. Alex said that it was nice to see so many people at the event motivated to raise money and awareness for many good causes. Ginna Ericksen, the volunteer coordinator of HSP’s Secret Pal Program, made the event a family affair running for HSP with her husband Matt, and her daughter Melissa running for another organization. Congratulations are certainly in order for Ginna, and Noriko Valenta, who also ran for HSP, for finishing 2^nd and 1^st in their divisions respectively.

Again, we want to thank everyone who participated in the event either by running, or donating money to sponsor our runners. The event has helped us in our mission to reach out to needy senior citizens and children in the area, by raising funds and awareness of our programs in the community.

Zurich North America Graciously Hosts (and Gives to) HSP

HSP was happy to be a guest of Zurich North America in Schaumburg yesterday as part of their inaugural Global Community Week. HSP was one of a number of non-profits invited to meet with Zurich employees, and to let them know about HSP’s mission and projects to serve the needy of DuPage and Kane Counties.

HSP Assistant Director Kristin Maxwell represented HSP at Zurich yesterday and said she had a fabulous time. She said that everyone at Zurich was very motivated to give back to the community, and were very interested in learning more about HSP. 

Various groups at Zurich have helped HSP reach the needy in the past. Their most recent contribution was of school supplies and toys for the needy children in our Children’s Birthday Project last year, or rather, that was their most recent contribution until yesterday. Zurich employees mobilized so strongly to provide “Care Kits” for our needy seniors and “Party in a Bag kits” for our needy children that Kristin had to return to Zurich this morning for an unanticipated, second necessary load that still filled up her Ford Expedition to the brim. These wonderful kits will surely bring joy to both the seniors and children that we serve in our programs. We want to thank everyone at Zurich for both this wonderful donation, and for hosting us for their Global Community Week.

Birthday Cakes 4 Free Provides Delicious Birthday Cakes to HSP’s Seniors

Those who read our blog this past Monday know that this week is National Volunteer Week, an opportunity to acknowledge those who put their time and energy into reaching out to people in need. Earlier today at HSP, we were reflecting on all the volunteers who have mobilized in a myriad of ways to help us serve the needy seniors and children in our projects, and one such volunteer just so happened to pop in the door.

HSP would like to call your attention to Rose Garcia, founder of the DuPage County Chapter of the charity Birthday 4 Free. This year, for the first time in the history of our project, Rose and Birthday Cakes 4 Free have taken it upon themselves to donate birthday cakes for all 120 needy seniors served in our Senior Citizen Project. Rose stopped by today to drop off the nine cakes for the seniors in our project with April birthdays, and, let us tell you, they looked yummy. Rose told us that this month the cakes were donated by Whole Foods. Rose was very happy because the cakes were so well made, and everyone at Whole Foods seemed very happy to donate them. We know our seniors will be very excited too. Judi, one of our seniors who received a “Birthday Cakes 4 Free” cake last month, said, “I was so moved by it. I almost burst into tears when Jerry [a volunteer HSP driver] gave it to me.” We want to thank Rose, Whole Foods, and everyone else who has helped Birthday Cakes 4 Free with this wonderful service to our needy seniors.

Rose started the DuPage Chapter of Birthday Cakes 4 Free only a matter of months ago, and is looking for volunteers to help the chapter grow. Volunteers can help by baking, purchasing, or delivering cakes, or even by donating coupons. You can find more about the chapter here: http://www.facebook.com/Birthdaycakes4freeforDupageandKanecounties.

United Stationers to Wrap Gifts for 29 Needy Children

Relative to what you are talking about, the number 29 can seem like a small number, or incredibly large. When it comes to bags of gifts to wrap for the needy children served by HSP, 29 certainly is the latter. However, that is the number of bags that our friends at United Stationers in Carol Stream picked up to wrap from our center yesterday. To put this into perspective, 29 bags of gifts to wrap contains somewhere in between 116 to 232 large gifts (such as games, puzzles, education toys/kits, craft/ art kits, sporting equipment,) 145-203 books, and countless other smaller gifts and school supplies. Volunteers at United Stationers will be wrapping all of these gifts for the sake of needy children at Lake Park Elementary School in Addison, who are enrolled in our Children’s Birthday Project. We want to thank United Stationers for helping HSP make a huge impact in the lives of these 29 needy children, and the countless more needy children and senior citizens they’ve helped over the years through their partnership with HSP. (Above: Bags of gifts to be wrapped for HSP's Children's Birthday Project, and shelves that were was packed full of gifts to wrap were cleared out by United Stationers.)

United Stationers has helped HSP in a myriad of ways by donating money, goods, and volunteering their time for a number of projects. Considering how active United Stationers has been at helping HSP reach out to the needy already, wrapping gifts for 29 children seems all the more impressive. If you would like to follow United Stationer’s example by wrapping gifts for 1 or more of the 900 needy children served by our Children’s Birthday Project, please call us at 630-221-8340.

Spirits Bright and Wide Awake at Humanitarian Service Project

Our Tuesday at the Humanitarian Service Project perked up when we had a very generous donation of 56 cases of coffee delivered to our dock. During the month of March, Philip Janisch located HSP when he and his daughter were driving through the neighborhood and found us in the parking lot during our Senior Delivery day. It was our lucky day when he asked us if we could use cases of coffee and of course we jumped at the chance.

Pictured: Philip Janisch next to his large donation of coffee.

Philip has the spirit of donating in his heart as he has been giving cases of coffee away to the local fire departments and churches in his community. We are very grateful for this donation of 1120 bags of coffee as it will go a long way in the grocery bags for the Senior Citizen Project and Feed the Kids Project. 120 seniors and 100+ families will enjoy the coffee and start their days more awake for the summer months of May through August.

It is through the support of wonderful people in our community like Phil, which make the many projects at HSP so successful. Donations of items such as food, toys, money, and people’s valuable time translates to significant support for needy seniors, children and their families in our community. If you are interested in donating or volunteering we look forward to hearing from you at (630) 221-8340 or visit our website at hsp@humanitarianservice.org.

Support HSP’s Human Race Volunteers

Ever since 1974, one week in April has been chosen as “National Volunteer Week” to inspire people to engage with the needy and to help build stronger, better communities. The week has also come to be a time to encourage and support those who take the time to volunteer and enrich the lives of those in need in our community. At HSP we have a special event going on this week that will allow you to both show your support for a few of these special volunteers, as well as make an impact in the lives of the needy people HSP serves.

We are looking for people to sponsor our runners for the First Annual DuPage Human Race this Saturday. The race is scheduled to correspond with the end of National Volunteer Week, and is designed to raise money and awareness for local charities like HSP. We have a number of wonderful volunteers who have chosen to give their time and energy to represent HSP in the race. By sponsoring HSP in the Human Race, you will not only show that you support the endeavors of these fantastic volunteers in making an impact in the community, all of the money donated will go directly to helping the needy senior citizens, families, and children the HSP serves. If you would be interested, please visit our donation page for the event: http://www.active.com/donate/dupagehumanrace/humanitarianservicep.

International Paper Has Feed the Kids in the Bag – Or the Box

As we start winding up for our summer Feed the Kids program, we’re busy gathering all of the supplies necessary to feed 100-125 families each month in June, July, and August. One of the often overlooked but much needed things for the program is boxes. Today we received a very generous donation from International Paper: 1600 boxes!

(A stack of boxes waiting to be filled with food)

We were so happy when we learned that International Paper was making this donation. It is a wonderful way to mark the start of our relationship with them, and it will go very far in this summer’s Feed the Kids program. One of our dear volunteers, Larry Erven, picked up the boxes for us this morning.

Feed the Kids will serve 350 children this summer, giving each of their families nearly $500 worth of food each month in June, July, and August. Because many of the children in our program rely on subsidized school lunches, we know the food will help the needy families in our community be able to provide nutritious and filling meals for their children while they are not in school. International Paper’s boxes enable us to have the produce and non-perishable items sorted, boxed, and ready to go when the families come to the warehouse each month for their food. Thank you, International Paper!

Getting into Good Habits: Birthday Gifts go to Needy Children of Lake Park Elementary

There is an ancient proverb that says, “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.” This being the case, we at Humanitarian Service Project sure are happy that the generosity of our supporters has allowed us to develop some very good habits. Today we got to practice one such habit we’ve been able to form recently, delivering birthday boxes to Lake Park Elementary School.

As frequent readers may know, after adopting the entire school for our Christmas Offering project last Christmas, we were able to enroll all 329 needy children at Lake Park into our Children’s Birthday Project a couple of months ago. Since then, we’ve been happy to get into the habit of preparing for the deliveries of birthday gifts for these children twice every month, as we know there is so much need at the school. Over 88% of the children at Lake Park Elementary come from families with incomes low enough that they receive subsidized school lunches. (Above: Lake Park Elementary Principal Deb Martello speaking with students about HSP’s program at an assembly last month.)

We want to thank all of our sponsors, and other supporters, because it is only through your help that we have been able to reach these needy children at Lake Park. We also want to thank our volunteer driver Rich Patera, who has proven to be a man of good habits, for regularly volunteering to deliver the birthday boxes from our center in Carol Stream to the school. We know that these gifts have truly made birthdays special for all the needy children at Lake Park.

Happy Birthday Bridget!

If our Children’s Birthday Project is any indication, we at the Humanitarian Service Project are quite big fans of birthday parties. A person’s birthday is an opportunity to show the person just how much you appreciate them for being who they are. We were happy to have such an opportunity today, to celebrate the birthday of someone truly special.

HSP wants to wish a very happy birthday to our fantastic Administrative Assistant Bridget Dooley. This is Bridget’s first birthday since joining the HSP team last November, and we were very happy to take the time today to recognize her on her special day. Bridget has been an important fixture around our office in the, almost, six months since she began here at HSP. While occupying our front desk, Bridget has gotten to know many of HSP’s wonderful supporters, and she was very happy that a number of friends of the project were volunteering around today to share in her birthday celebration. Please join us in wishing Bridget a happy birthday! Above: HSP Assistant Director Kristin Maxwell (left) carrying the birthday cake for Bridget (right.)

Women’s Society of First Congregational Church Shows Kindness

Mark Twain once said, “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” When someone is in need, the best thing you can do for that person is to show you care with an act of kindness.

We at the Humanitarian Service Project would like to extend our deepest thanks to the Women’s Society of the First Congregational Church in Western Springs, for exemplifying these words of Mark Twain. They have shown their kindness and caring by donating 36 “care kits” for the needy seniors in our program. Each of these wonderful kits will serve the dual purpose of providing the seniors with items they need, and allow them to have some fun as well. (Above: The contents of one of the care kits donated by the Women’s Society at First Congregational Church in Western Springs.)

The kits contained lotion, dish soap, a wash cloth, tissues, greeting cards with stamps, and a book of word searches. Again, we want to thank the Women’s Society of the First Congregational Church in Western Springs for showing the needy seniors we serve how much they care for them.

The needy seniors in our Senior Citizen Project all come from very low economic circumstances, and have to make tough decisions with the little income they do receive. With the cost of rent, medication, and necessities, these seniors often have to do without items they need to make their lives easier. Senior care kits, like those donated by the Women’s Society of First Congregational Church, are a practical way to help these needy seniors with these needs, as well as, to show how much you care. If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity to reach needy seniors, you can do so on our website: http://www.humanitarianservice.org/getinvolved/donations.html.

Put on Your Sorting Hats: Be a Food Sorter for the Needy

With 90 pounds of groceries going to the 120 needy seniors in our Senior Citizen Project every month, and our summer Feed the Kids program fast approaching, there is a lot of food that goes out of HSP. Many may wonder how all of this food manages to get sorted and into the hands of those who need it. Readers who are familiar with the popular Harry Potter series of books may be picturing a sorting hat; a hat which can sort people simply by being placed on their heads. Of course, HSP is committed to helping those dealing with the real world problem of hunger, so a fantasy solution like a sorting hat is a no go for us. Luckily, HSP has been blessed with so many wonderful volunteers who have put on their sorting hats, metaphorically of course, to help HSP reach needy seniors and families by sorting food.

We are so fond of these individuals, and the fantastic service they do for the sake of the needy people we serve, we are always looking for more, eager helpers to keep them company. If you think sorting food for the needy is a service you’d be interested in doing, consider joining our Monday Morning Food Sorting Crew. The group meets at our center in Carol Stream from 9:30 until about Noon on Monday mornings to sort food in our warehouse. Another potential time to volunteer is on Wednesday mornings. We have a small, dedicated group of volunteers who have been volunteering a few hours on Wednesday mornings for years now, and we know they would love a few new, smiling faces to join in. If volunteering regularly is not something that fits in to your schedule, we will have additional need for food sorters in the upcoming months as our Feed the Kids program gets going. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please call us at 630-221-8340.

Hop on the Volunteer Bandwagon and Hop Into Spring!

With the warmer spring weather upon us, many of you may be looking for some pleasant, meaningful activities to spend your time. Why not hop on the HSP spring bandwagon and volunteer with us next month? HSP has two special upcoming opportunities for volunteers to be a part of!

The first is our annual “Stamp Out Hunger” event, which is a mega food drive in which we partner with the U.S. Postal Service to feed the hungry in our communities. U.S. postal carriers collect food donations on their routes, and in turn, each post office donates the food to local service agencies (such as HSP) for distribution to the needy. This year, the “Stamp Out Hunger” event will be held on Saturday, May 12, 2012. HSP seeks volunteers to pick up the food donations at the post office and then deliver them to HSP. We also seek additional volunteers in our warehouse to sort the food as it arrives from the post office.

The second opportunity is “Feed the Kids,” which is a highly successful program that HSP started back in 2004 to help families in DuPage and Kane Counties during the summer months to feed their kids nutritious meals. From May to August when the free or subsidized breakfast and lunch programs at their children’s schools are unavailable, many local families struggle feeding their children. HSP recognized this need in the community, and the “Feed the Kids” program was born. Over the years, the program has heavily impacted the lives of children in our community with fruits, vegetables, meats, and non-perishable items. At present, “Feed the Kids” serves 125 needy families. From May through August 2012, HSP specifically seeks help with food sorting in our warehouse and once a month (Wednesday) food distribution.

If you would like to volunteer for either (or both!) of these opportunities, please contact HSP at (630) 221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org. Thank you for your generous donation of time!

CBP- Helps Make Birthdays Worry Free

Imagine being back in elementary school and getting called into the principal’s office on the first day of school. You know you haven’t done anything, so you can’t imagine why you’ve been called there. Then it hits you, today was your little brother’s first day of Kindergarten, and you know he’s causing trouble. It turns out you’re right. The principal needs you to talk your brother down from the top of a bookcase, where he is perched up cawing like a bird.

While this goofy scenario is, fortunately, the fictional experience of Peter, the main character of Judy Blume’s childrens books Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge, blog readers with younger siblings can probably relate. Like Peter in these books, when children start to reach the ages of 8 to 11, they start to have more responsibilities. Whether this involves mischievous little brothers, increased school work, helping out around the house, children 8 to 11 oftentimes have things they need to be concerned about. For this reason, we at HSP want to make sure that needy children in this age range don’t have the additional worry of wondering whether their birthday is an event that their family simply can’t afford.

While our children’s birthday project serves needy children ages 3-11, we are always in the greatest need of gifts for children 8-11. Gifts for children in this age range can include board games, legos, sports equipment, model kits, puzzles, craft kits, or card games. If you would be interested in helping HSP reach needy children on their birthday by donating some items such as these, they can be dropped off at our center at 465 Randy Road in Carol Stream during our hour 8-4 Monday through Friday.

HSP Salutes Divine Savior Parish!

Twenty years ago today, the world was a very different place. The Soviet Union had only fallen a few months prior, a state of the art computer would have only been running Windows 3.0, and nobody had ever heard the words iPad, blog, or Facebook. However, one thing that has stayed the same throughout all that time is the support Humanitarian Service Project has received from Divine Savior Parish in Downer’s Grove. A lot of things have certainly come in and out of fashion in that period of time, but Divine Savior’s passion for helping the needy senior citizens and children served by HSP certainly hasn’t waned. We want to thank them for their continued generosity!

Divine Savior most recently showed their support for those in need served by HSP with a food and paper drive dropped off at our center in Carol Stream earlier today. Tierney Hogan, HSP’s Senior Project Coordinator, said she was very excited to see the donation in “a sedan packed to the gills” of non-perishable food and paper products that the seniors in our Senior Citizen Project desperately need. We want to thank Rich Patera, a longtime friend of HSP and member of Divine Savior, for delivering the donation to our center in Carol Stream. We would also like to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone else at Divine Savior Parish, not only for this donation, but all of the support they have generously given to the needy children and senior citizens in HSP’s programs over the years.

HSP is Looking Forward to an Awesome April

We at the Humanitarian Service Project think that, as a month, April has been treated somewhat unfairly. It has become synonymous with rainy weather, and, as any lovers of literature out there may know, T.S Eliot began his famous poem The Waste Land with the line, “April is the cruelest month.” However, anyone who so much as went outside yesterday or today would know that April does not deserve this reputation. In fact, HSP has a couple of fun events going on this month that are anything but “cruel,” that we would like to share with you. (Above: We've had such a sunny start to our April that we just had to snap a few photos outside our center yesterday.)

The first event is the inaugural DuPage Human Race on Saturday April 21^st. We won’t go into too much detail, as we discussed the event in our blog last week, but it is a 5K Run/ 2 mile fitness walk in which participants can sign up and raise money for HSP. If you want to learn more about the event, or to sign up, you can go to http://www.active.com/donate/dupagehumanrace, or if you can donate directly to HSP at http://www.active.com/donate/dupagehumanrace/humanitarianservicep.

The second, special event HSP has circled on its calendar this April is the 37^th Annual Charity Fashion Show and Luncheon of the Bloomingdale Women’s Club. This is one of the club’s major annual fundraisers, and HSP is honored to have been selected as a major recipient of the funds raised by the event. The show will be hosted at The Seville Banquet Hall in Streamwood on Sunday April 29th. Cocktails are served at 12pm with the fashion show and luncheon beginning at 1pm. The show will feature fashions from Carson Pirie Scott, Sassy’s Originals, and Bella Bianca Couture. The event will include raffles, door prizes, and is sure to be a lot of fun. Tickets are $40, and can be purchased by calling 630-762-1125.

With events like this on the horizon, HSP is looking to have a fantastic April, and we’d like to think, T.S Eliot might change his mind about April if he had a month like this as well.

Warm a Senior’s Heart, Donate a Warm Meal

With Easter approaching, many people are getting ready for large family gatherings. While different families surely have different customs, large family gatherings almost universally translate into large family meals. However, imagine what it is like for the needy senior citizens that HSP serves, most of whom have little to no family in the area, as well as having physical ailments that make cooking difficult. For these seniors, all of whom are under severe financial stress, oftentimes a nice, warm meal is not a possibility. This is why Humanitarian Service Project created the Monthly Meal Program. Volunteer participants of the program make, or purchase, a warm meal for one of the needy senior citizens in our project and bring it to them. This can be either a regular or one time service to help a needy senior. Many volunteers use this opportunity as a bonding experience between family members or as a group activity.

This program means so much to the needy seniors that HSP serves. Many of the seniors have been very vocal about how much they appreciate those who have volunteered their time and cooking skills to the program. One senior said, “Everything was just wonderful, [the volunteer] was very sweet, and came and chatted with me. She was a fantastic woman.” Another senior mentioned how much she “loved” the food she received, and how it was so nice to receive a nice warm meal. She mentioned that her physical limitations make cooking hard, and going out to eat is not financially or physically realistic. We are looking for more people who want to help reach out to a senior citizen in need through this program. If you are interested, please call us at 630-221-8340.