KinderCare’s Awareness of Children’s Needs Benefits HSP

The gift giving never ceases at the Humanitarian Service Project (HSP). Whether we are preparing birthday boxes to celebrate a child’s special day, or organizing toys for the upcoming Christmas season, gifts are always year-round. Today, HSP welcomed 13 managers from local KinderCares of the DuPage and Kane County districts. The KinderCare District Manager, Doria Salamone, is constantly overseeing these 12 districts throughout the two counties. The bubbly Doria Salamone has spent 20 fulfilling years with KinderCare. Her generous decision to allocate time in HSP’s warehouse came to mind because of this year’s “district mission.” KinderCare wanted to reach out to the local community and devote their time to a place in which the values went hand in hand, Doria says. What links HSP with KinderCare is simply the children. Doria, along with her 12 fellow KinderCare county managers, took an energetic stand in our warehouse today. These brilliant women put their knowledge of children to good use. Between the hours of 1 and 4 they sorted, organized and counted various children’s board games and toys. The work will not go unnoticed. Both HSP staff and clients truly appreciate all the organization and hard work KinderCare provided for us today in our warehouse.

KinderCare’s 13 managers helping to find a baby doll a new home.

Thanks again KinderCare!

Wrapping It Up: United Stationers Wrap Gifts for 30 Children in Need

Most people wouldn’t think that you would be having a gift-wrapping competition at work, unless you’re a professional gift wrapper, that is. However, for the United Stationers of Carol Stream, this has lately been a regular occurrence. On Tuesday, United Stationers’ Local Transportation Manager Dora McLin, the coordinator of the company’s service project, arranged for 10 bags of birthday gifts for the Children’s Birthday Project, which serves needy children from ages 3 to 11, to be picked up on Tuesday, only to then pick up 20 more bags of gifts yesterday.  

Just one of the total 30 bags of gifts to be generously wrapped by the United Stationers.

The United Stationers are extremely prolific gift wrappers, as they also gave their time to wrap gifts for 35 children’s birthdays just last month. The employees make the gift wrapping fun by engaging in a friendly competition between the different departments of the company. With each bag of gifts containing 4-8 new toys and 5-7 new books, the competition can get tough! So, not only do the United Stationers of Carol Stream get to help children in need, but they get to have fun at work as well. When all of the gifts in the bags are wrapped, children also receive stuffed animals, school supplies, several smaller gifts, and a Party in a Bag, which includes all the things that are needed to throw a birthday party, such as cake mix and frosting, party decorations, and party favors. With all of this together, the children get a 20 pound box on their birthdays.  For all of their hard work, we would like to thank the United Stationers and Dora McLin for coordinating the service project. If you would like to follow the lead of the United Stationers and volunteer for us, please contact us at (630) 221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org.

Poverty Denies School Supplies for Children

For thousands of children living in poverty, the inability of their families to afford necessary back to school supplies brings stress to this otherwise exciting time of year. 

HSP is calling on local members of the community to donate school supplies for the needy children in our annual School Supply Drive. 

Providing these children with school supplies helps to make them excited for school and gives them the tools they need to succeed. This year, HSP hopes to supply as many as 5,000 children with a wide array of school supplies. The supplies will be distributed at the 2012 Back-to-School Fair hosted by the DuPage Regional Office of Education. The fair will take place August 8th at the DuPage County Fair Grounds.

The need for donations is very high. This year, we are specifically in need of new crayons, glue, rulers, colored folders, notebooks, markers, index cards, calculators, and pencil boxes. HSP will be accepting school supply donations until October.

It is evident that summer is in full swing as children are seen playing outside all day. With the recent heat wave it is hard to believe that school will be starting again before you know it. If you are interested in helping HSP provide relief to impoverished children during the back to school season, please contact us at (630) 221-8340 or hsp@humanitarianservice.org.
 

As another month comes to a close, we are pleased to announce another successful delivery day for the Senior Citizen Project. As we previously mentioned in our posts, with June being the first month of our Feed the Kids program, we have had a very busy month. However, with the help of our wonderful supporters, our June delivery was a big triumph.

We’d like to take this opportunity to give our heartfelt thanks to all those that helped out this past Saturday. All of this could not have been completed without the help of all the delivery drivers who took time out of their morning to make the trip to all the seniors, as well as the loaders who helped pack the cars with the groceries and items. We also like to acknowledge UPS for sorting out all the produce last Friday allowing the process to run with ease.

 A thousand thank yous would not be enough to equal the generosity of our donors and volunteers. Always trying to improve our services, this month we were able to donate 50 fans out to seniors in need especially during these upcoming heat waves. We also like to give thanks to Birthday Cakes 4 Free for giving us nine birthday cakes to our seniors. Another wonderful addition to our program is the pet food given to thirteen of our seniors funded by the Fox Valley Animal Welfare League helping to feed the hungry mouths of our notable companions.

Once again, much thanks to all of those who donated their time and efforts for making our program see another successful delivery day! 

Goodbye to our Adler interns!

As we venture further and further into the summer, we at HSP are happy to see the newest editions to our intern team blossom, but we are also sad to see a valuable trio of interns leaving our family. After having just said goodbye to our soon-to-be-married Adler School of Professional Psychology intern, Navneet, we are now bidding adieu to the three remaining Adler interns: Laurie, Ian and Julie.

Laurie, Ian and Julie joined us back in January, and have been invaluable members of the HSP team ever since. Among their many contributions to the Humanitarian Service Project was their work with the seniors in our Senior Citizen Project program. Laurie, Ian and Julie worked extensively on ensuring that the seniors’ health referrals were up-to-date, interviewing seniors for annual senior update reports, and writing the senior updates.  All three are deep into their graduate programs, and will now be moving onto completing their clinicals.

As is customary here, we commemorated Ian, Julie and Laurie’s farewells with a send-off party complete with cake and ice cream. Having been here for such a long period of time, we here at HSP have grown especially fond of this group of Adler interns, and will greatly miss the talents and personalities that each of them brought to the table. We were so fortunate to have them with us, and we wish them the absolute best as they move forward towards their bright futures.

Liberty Mutual and UPS Make Feeding Kids and Seniors Easy this Summer

With July right around the corner, the Humanitarian Service Project has been getting the warehouse in shape for the Feed The Kids project. Fortunate for us, Liberty Mutual celebrated its 100^th year anniversary with hours of volunteer work for their “Serve with Liberty” service days. The joyful and enthusiastic employees of Liberty Mutual spent two labor-filled days in HSP’s warehouse. The second group of employees that came today, Friday, dedicated their time to food sorting, reorganizing and counting inventory, combining various paper products into boxes, and preparing grocery items for HSP’s Feed The Kids and Senior Citizen projects. These hardworking and fast paced employees came from several Liberty Mutual branches like Indiana Insurance, “Personal Markets” Department, and even their Legal Department. We want to thank Liberty Mutual for sharing their 100^th year anniversary here at HSP and we so grateful for all the work they accomplished over the span of two days.

Liberty Mutual’s Employees of day two.

Liberty Mutual wasn’t the only organization that joined the fun of helping to assist the needy kids and seniors of our program. UPS Supply Chain Solutions also lent some helping hands to volunteer in our warehouse. Six employees from UPS came to our warehouse and continued to show their loyalty to HSP by sorting fresh produce that was delivered from Caputo’s, today. The hard work and time UPS contributed to the Humanitarian Service Project will not go unnoticed. Senior citizens of our program receive monthly donations of 90 lbs of food, which will include the fresh produce UPS organized. We are extremely thankful for all the work UPS completed today and their continuous support to our various projects.

UPS employees sorting fresh produce

 

 

A special thanks to both Liberty Mutual and UPS!

Thank You Liberty Mutual!

Even as this is being written, our generous volunteers from Liberty Mutual offices all over the Chicago area are packing boxes for our August distribution of our Feed the Kids Project. Since 8 a.m. on this rainy Thursday, 15 volunteers packed a month’s worth of boxes of much needed non-perishable foods that go out to the 100 needy families served by the Feed the Kids Project. Each family receives three of these boxes of non-perishables, in addition to fresh produce, bread, and meat, totaling an average of 175 pounds of food for each family when distribution day rolls around.

The Liberty Mutual group committed to a day of community service as a part of their Serve With Liberty program, which was founded as a celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the insurance company. Additionally, another group of volunteers from Liberty Mutual will be helping with the Feed the Kids Project all day tomorrow. The Serve With Liberty program does not only include the Chicago offices, but is a company-wide program, which consists of approximately 25,000 people in 19 countries working on a total of 1600 projects with 760 charities all across the globe. Employees from a variety of departments within the Chicago offices, including loss control, marketing/sales, surety sales, claims, and underwriting, were given the option of participating at HSP either today or tomorrow as a part of the service program. The Chicago area Liberty Mutual offices picked HSP as their community service location because it seemed like a great opportunity to really give back to the community. The volunteers eagerly put their efforts into action by quickly and enthusiastically jumping into the packing process, with the philosophy that since we are all responsible for one another, it is necessary to give back to each other.

We would like to thank Liberty Mutual and Elaine Cerny, who coordinated the event for the Serve With Liberty Program. Liberty Mutual’s volunteer efforts will greatly help the families served by the Feed the Kids Project. The Feed the Kids Project is conducted each summer and serves as a way to ensure that children in poverty who receive free or reduced lunches during the school year continue to receive nutritious food during the summer vacation. If you would also like to assist in helping us serve these families, please call us at 630-221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org. 

HSP’s Summer Intern Team Continues to Grow!

Erica

Throughout the summer, we’ve had the pleasure of introducing you all to our team of bright, young summer interns. We were lucky enough to welcome two more eager young people starting their internships today. Please, join us in welcoming these two, Erica Scodro and Katie Stanton, to HSP!

Erica, who is double majoring in Operations/ Supply Chain Management and International Business at Marquette University, is joining us a General Intern. In this position, she will be assisting the HSP staff in a number of different projects to help all of our programs aimed at providing relief to needy senior citizens and families to continue running smoothly. Erica said she was inspired to apply for the internship here because her parents have always stressed the importance of serving the community, and she is very interested in learning “the inner workings of non-profits.” When not studying or being involved service with the Big Brothers Big Sisters, Erica enjoys watching and playing sports, as well as reading. Her favorite books are mysteries, which stems from a life long love of Nancy Drew.

Katie

Also joining us for the first time today is Katie Stanton, a new addition to our Grant Writing Intern squad. Katie earned her degree in Writing and Publishing from Benedictine in December 2010, and is excited at the opportunity to cultivate these skills as a grant writer here at HSP. Service is a major passion of Katie’s, and she has spent a lot of time throughout her life volunteering for various food pantries, animal shelters, or with the homeless. When not volunteering, Katie loves to play piano, write recreationally and read. Her favorite book is the J.D. Salinger classic The Catcher in the Rye. We are very excited to have both Erica and Katie joining us at HSP!

Focus on feeding hungry children: Getting ahead of the game

It is hard to believe that less than just one week after our huge Feed the Kids (FTK) distribution day for June, we here at HSP are deep into preparations for the July distribution day! When this summer-specific program is added onto HSP’s already extensive list of year-round programs, it is never too soon to move onto the next project! With one hundred needy families participating in our FTK program, we are extremely fortunate to have such tremendous volunteers to help us prepare for all of the families who rely on our services.

One of the groups we were lucky enough to have lending a hand today was a group coming from the Outreach Community Center of Carol Stream. Today, this wonderful group of 9 young men accompanied by their leaders were not only successful in packing 50 of July’s ‘C’ FTK boxes, but they also assembled and labeled all 100 of the August ‘A’ boxes! If that were not enough, the group was also kind enough to help clean up the excess boxes throughout the warehouse, and lend a helping hand to the other volunteer group. There was a lot of energy being put to good use today!

Our second volunteer group of the day came to us from the First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton, with 10 children and 2 chaperones from their vacation bible school. Today, this group focused on completing 50 ‘C’ boxes for July, and they even brought in several bags filled with food donations! This VBS group along with the group from the Outreach Community Center completed all 100 of our ‘C’ boxes for July’s FTK distribution, and gave us a head start on August projects.                                                                                               

That being said, we are excited to have both of today’s volunteer groups back to help later on this week! Thank you so much to both the First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton VBS and the Outreach Community Center of Carol Stream. They both helped prepare HSP to feed 100 families in need!

In order to ensure that we at HSP are able to continue to serve the impoverished citizens of Kane and DuPage Counties, there are several food items that we have a particularly immediate need for. This is a great group project to work on, or a check made towards the purchase of one of these items would be wonderful. We are looking for:

·         Tuna (2,160 cans)

·         Peanut Butter and Jelly (375 jars each)

·         Canned fruit (1,875 cans)

·         Pasta and sauce (1,125 boxes/jars)

·         Main meals including boxed rice, boxed pasta dishes, canned chili, stew, and hearty soup

If you would like to donate any of these items to our FTK program, please call (630) 221-8340.

Thank You McGladrey!

This past Friday, McGladrey, the fifth largest U.S. provider of assurance, tax and consulting services donated 150 wrapped gifts ranging from board games and art kits to diary kits, Lego kits, and sticker books for needy children between the ages of 7 to 11 in our Children’s Birthday Project. 440 individuals pursuing their ongoing financial training attended a conference located in St. Charles this past month, and HSP was fortunate enough to be chosen as the charity group of interest for McGladrey support. 

This two hour charity event was made all the more enjoyable event as those in attendance wrapped the gifts to be donated while viewing the Cubs vs. Tigers game being projected on numerous screens and engaging in a vast array of carnival games.  The fun continued as the wrapped gifts were turned into friendly competition by assigning cutest wrapped gifts, neatest wrapped gifts, and various other superlatives.

We would like to thank McGladrey, whose donations to the Children’s Birthday Project will help create wonderful memories that last a lifetime for children living below the poverty line.  We currently have 534 children of this age group participating in the Children’s Birthday Project, and every gift that we receive truly makes a difference!  If you too are interested in making a difference in the lives of these children, check out our website for more information: https://www.humanitarianservice.org/, or call us at, (630)-221-8340.

Happy Birthday to our Assistant Director Kristin!

Here at the Humanitarian Service Project we are not only celebrating the birthdays of the children we help, but we also like to recognize the birthdays of our employees as well. Tomorrow, June 16^th, marks another special day in that it is our Assistant Director, Kristen Maxell’s birthday! Besides the usual busy day full of phone calls, tours of our warehouse and packaging of food at HSP, our employees and interns took time to celebrate and share the day with Kristin. Some of you may remember that Kristin has volunteered at HSP for a long time, but for the first time, she had the chance to celebrate with HSP not as a volunteer, but as a staff member.

(Kristin getting ready to make a wish and blow out her candles)
Kristin has been a part of the staff now for a little over five months and we couldn’t be happier. Her hard working ethics and vibrant personality assure that there is never a dull moment at the Humanitarian Service Project. Once again we’d like to thank Kristin for all of the hard work she puts in every single day. We all hope she enjoys her day and takes the time for herself to relax and celebrate outside of the office with her family and friends. She deserves it! Happy birthday Kristin!

St Petronille and Christ the King Church Youth “Live Out Loud”

With yesterday’s Feed the Kids distribution to the 100 needy families in the project so successful, everyone at HSP was motivated to get the ball rolling for next month’s distribution day. Luckily, we had some help to make this a reality. Today we were blessed to have a number of phenomenal youth volunteers from St. Petronille Parish in Glen Ellyn, and Christ the King Church in Lombard volunteering their time today in our warehouse helping us get a leg up on preparing for next month’s Feed the Kids Distribution.

These lively youth worked in our warehouse as part of their “Living Out Loud Service Blitz,” an annual event designed to get 6th and 7th grade youth involved in service around the community. Let us tell you, these young volunteers and their chaperones certainly did “get involved.” The various groups from the two churches throughout the day, fully created the 100 “box A” boxes of non-perishable food, literally constructed and filled the 100 “box B” boxes, as well as sorted bags 150 bags of various frozen meats. Everything that the “Living out Loud” volunteers accomplished today will help HSP reach the 100 needy families in our Feed the Kids Project with the nutritious food they so desperately need for the remainder of the summer. We wish to thank them for all their hard work. If you’d like to follow the lead of these youth volunteers from St. Petronille and Christ the King Church, and help HSP make a real difference in the lives of the needy families we serve, please call us at 630-221-8340.

Thank You for Helping us “Feed the Kids!”

Even as this is being written, our June Distribution Day for our Feed the Kids Project is going on in our warehouse. Throughout today, all 100 of the needy families served by the program will be arriving at our center to pick up much needed groceries including fresh produce, bread, frozen meats, and non-perishable food, totaling over 175 pounds for each family. As you may imagine, we’ve had a lot of volunteer help who have graciously lent a hand to help make our event to feed these needy families successful. We want to take this time to recognize them.

First we would like to thank 23 volunteers from the Illinois Colleagues group of Charter One Bank who volunteered in two shifts to help us load up the cars of the needy families today. These volunteers came from all around the area from numerous Charter One locations, and various departments within the bank to help us with the event.

Secondly, we would also like to thank the volunteers who helped us sort food to prepare to make the distribution run smoothly. Yesterday, we had a group of six students from Downers Grove South High School take time out of their summer vacation to help us sort the fresh fruits and vegetables we ordered from Caputo’s and the Pepperidge Farm bread. We want to thank these helpful young people for coming out to help us provide for these families suffering under poverty.

We would also like to thank seven volunteers from WOW! Internet and Cable in Naperville, for taking the time to come and sort non-perishable food, in our warehouse today. With cheerful and hard working attitudes, these fantastic volunteers really helped us get a leg up on sorting food for our upcoming distribution days for the next two months. 

Last but not least we want to recognize all of the other friends of the HSP who helped our distribution to these very needy families be successful; Pamela Myers, Karen Cummings, and John Cummings for helping with the distribution, Steve Stasiak for helping us load and being a back up delivery driver for families who couldn’t make it, and Judi Simon for helping the group from WOW! Get comfortable in our warehouse. It is only through the loving support of friends like these that HSP is able to make the impact in the lives of the needy families and senior citizens we serve.

With subsidized food programs through schools inactive during the summer months, the needy families in our Feed the Kids Project have are annually left with a means to provide their children with the food they need during the summer months. The Feed the Kids Program is designed to fill this void, providing each needy family with an estimated 525 pounds of food for the summer. If you, like these volunteers, would be interested in helping us reach these families with the nutritious food they so desperately need, please call us at 630-221-8340 to join us for our July and August distributions.

New Books From 13-year old Birthday Girl

    Birthdays are always a special occasion for children, especially when it is the day that marks the first of their teenage years. For Emily Friedman, turning thirteen not only marked her first sign as a teen but also her celebration of becoming a woman, her bat mitzvah. With this monumental stepping stone in her life, Emily wanted to give back to her community during her first days as a young adult. Emily decided that instead of receiving gifts, she will help raise money to purchase books for the children of HSP. With the help of her two younger sisters, Emily was able to host a bake sale to all of her friends and family to raise the money.

Emily (far right) and her two younger sisters

     Emily was kind enough to purchase two boxes of books from the Scholastic Warehouse and donate them to our Children Birthday Project. This marks one of the lovely representations of what the people in Dupage and Kane counties do for our organization. If you would like more information of reaching to families in the Children Birthday Project or our other projects, visit our website http://humanitarianservice.org/ or give us a call at 630-221-8340.

HSP Says Welcome Aboard to Two New Interns!

Today was another exciting day at the Humanitarian Service Project, as we had the pleasure of welcoming two bright, young individuals into our internship program. We would like to introduce you to Morgan Smith and Nicholas Smith, no relation, who have both joined HSP’s summer intern team. Morgan will be what is called a “general intern” here at HSP, assisting staff in a number of ways to help make things run smoothly here at our center, working on a myriad of projects. Nicholas joins us for a Grant Writing Internship, in which he will assist HSP by researching and applying for grants to allowing us to maintain our services and ideally bringing more needy seniors and children into our programs.

Morgan

Morgan is currently studying psychology with a minor in social work at Elmhurst College. She comes here to HSP as part of her goal to eventually become a social worker, looking to gain experience working to help provide for the needy people we serve. Morgan says she was drawn to HSP because of her love of serving others. She is a member of the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity at school, and she also organizes service projects as the Service Chair for Elmhurst’s honors program. Morgan says she has always been personally motivated to help out those in need, and she is very glad her college experience has allowed her to be so active in service. When not doing school work or service, Morgan is a very avid reader, and is a big fan of Stephen King, as well as the books in the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series.

Nicholas

Nicholas comes to us having recently graduated from Elmhurst College in May, where he majored in English with a focus in writing. He says he was attracted to the position because he loved the idea of gaining professional writing experience and helping those in need at the same time. He is an active volunteer with DuPage PADS, and previously ran a homeless outreach program with a few friends when he lived in Michigan. Nicholas says his own personal belief in the importance of helping others is what motivates him to remain so active in service. Like Morgan, Nicholas is a literature lover. As a big fan of the classics, his favorite authors are Dostoyevsky and Ernest Hemingway.

We are all very excited to have Morgan and Nicholas starting here at HSP. Please join us in welcoming them to the team!

Farewell to our intern, Navneet, from Adler School of Professional Psychology

It was a bittersweet day at the Humanitarian Service Project. One of our interns had her final day with us today. It’s been a long journey for Navneet Kaur here at HSP. As you may remember she has been with us since the beginning of January and now that it is June, it was time for Navneet to part with HSP. Navneet, who was studying at Adler School of Professional Psychology, didn’t just spend her time completing her practicum and excel at her numerous projects with us, she became a close friend to many and it’s sad to see her leave. Although we wish Navneet could continue her admirable work here at HSP, it’s time for her to prepare for the move to California.

(Navneet celebrating her last day with HSP)
We will all truly miss Navneet, and the days at HSP will be different without her, but we know she will continue to do wonderful things in the Golden State. We wish her all the best and congratulate her on her upcoming wedding. Enjoy your beautiful day! We can’t wait to see all the gorgeous pictures!

Thank you St Alphonsus!

Today Humanitarian Service Project was happy to host four volunteers from St. Alphonsus Church in Lemont who spent over two hours in our warehouse helping us prepare for our Feed the Kids Distribution Day next week. The group spent their time building boxes to hold the fresh produce that we will be purchasing from Caputo’s for our June Distribution Day, as well as building boxes that will house non-perishable food for the July Distribution. With this group’s contribution to the groundwork laid by the other hard working volunteer groups we’ve had during the past few weeks, everything is falling into place to reach the 100 needy families in our Feed the Kids program with the food they so desperately need.

On top of getting our warehouse ship shape for Feed the Kids, the group also donated many wonderful items for the needy senior citizens in our Senior Citizen Project, which including items like new pillows, Depends, and other personal care items. We want to thank this group from St. Alphonsus for both this wonderful donation and all their hard work. If you too would like to help us reach either families or senior citizens in need, check out our website for more info: https://www.humanitarianservice.org/ or call us at, 630-221-8340.

A New Intern Joins the Team!

Last month, we introduced you to several new interns who will be spending their summer learning about work in the non-profit field, and helping HSP in our mission to feed and otherwise provide relief to families and senior citizens suffering trapped in poverty. Today, these interns, and HSP as a whole, were blessed with a new compatriot, Kate Borromeo. Kate, a student at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, joined our team today as a Project Management Intern. She will be coordinating with Tierney Hogan, our Senior Citizen Project Coordinator, to run the Meal of the Month Program for the needy seniors in our Senior Citizen Project. Please join us in welcoming Kate to our team.

Kate

Kate’s dual major, Biology and Science Technology and Society, may seem odd for an HSP intern, but Kate aspires to join Doctors Without Borders after she finishes school, so she felt serving the needy at HSP would be right up her alley. She says she is looking forward to her internship here, knowing it will be a good experience and a way for her to give back to the community. Kate is also involved in serving others through her volunteer work with World Relief, Habitat for Humanity, and a smaller organization she has become involved in through her parents called Mission East Asia National Support. Kate believes service must be in her blood, because her parents are also very active with a number of organizations, and she has always been passionate about helping those in need. Outside of school and service, Kate enjoys photography and spending time with her family and friends. We are very excited to have Kate as part of the HSP team.

Feed the Kids is on the Horizon

We at the Humanitarian Service Project wanted to take some time to update you on some of the more general happenings around HSP. With June here we are in full swing getting ready for our Feed the Kids Project. With our first monthly distribution day on the 13th, everyone at HSP, from staff, interns, to our wonderful volunteers, are busy preparing to reach each of the 100 needy families with 175 pounds of nutritious groceries. Of course, once the June distribution day is in the rear view mirror, we will be busy, albeit happily busy, preparing for our July and August distribution days as well.

Fresh produce for the families in our Feed the Kids Project from one of last year’s distribution days.

In the summer months of June, July, and August, subsidized lunch programs through schools that needy families rely on are not active. Our Feed the Kids Project was created in order to provide needy families with the nutritious food they need during this difficult period of the year. As you can probably guess, in order to accomplish our goal of ending hunger in the summertime for these 100 needy families, HSP has been supported by a number of wonderful volunteers and generous donors. We want to thank them for helping us make Feed the Kids possible. If you too would like to be involved in reaching out to these needy families through our Feed the Kids Project, please call us at 630-221-8340.

Thank You McDonald’s Corporation

Humanitarian Service Project would like to extend our deepest thanks to the McDonald’s Corporation for the donation of 50 amazing “Party-in-a-bag” kits for the needy children served by our children’s birthday project. Each kit was full of enough party supplies to throw a fantastic birthday party. Thanks to this awesome donation, fifty needy children will be having really fun and memorable birthdays.

Kris Roach and her daughter Claire, dropping off the “Party in a bag” kits, from McDonald’s Corporation.

The kits were dropped off at our center in Carol Stream by Kris Roach, Manager of Global Compensation at McDonald’s, and her daughter Claire. Alex Gordy, HSP’s Database Manager and Co-coordinator of the Children’s Birthday Project, was excited when he saw how many kits Kris and Claire were bringing. Kris said everyone at McDonald’s enjoyed getting the donation together so much that they are already planning their next donation. We are happy that they had fun creating and donating the kits, because we know that all the needy children who receive them will be overjoyed as well.

If you too are interested making a difference in the lives of the needy children in our Children’s Birthday Project, you can find out more ways to help by checking out our website at: http://www.humanitarianservice.org/getinvolved/index.html or by calling us at 630-221-8340. 

Help the Hungry on Hump Day

    We are blessed with the bountiful amount of food we see come through our warehouse every month, but with all this food, we need more help! Every month we ship 10,800 pounds of food for the 120 needy seniors we help in the Senior Citizen Project. In order to fulfill our mission of ending hunger for these seniors, HSP is forming a team of volunteers to join a few long serving friends of the project in sorting food on Wednesday mornings. We are calling out to members of the community interested in joining the fight against local hunger.

Food to sort and happy food sorters.

 With the help of the community, we will be able to achieve the fulfillment of sorting out all the foods and items that are donated: bread, frozen meats, and non-perishable food, paper products and personal care items. The heart of our organization is within the volunteers and those who give their time and generosity to keep our non-profit going. If you’re interested in coming out Wednesday morning to the HSP headquarters 

to offer your help, please call us at 630-221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org.

Senior Delivery Day