Thank You St. Louis Volunteers!

 Yesterday we had the privilege of hosting 21 volunteers who spent more than two hours in our warehouse helping us get ready for our next Feed the Kids distribution day. They helped by boxing non-perishable food, preparing 100 meat bags, and setting up the warehouse for the distribution day on July 8^th. This group of volunteers is on their annual Impact mission trip to help those in need. They are from Faith Lutheran Church of O’Fallon, IL which is based just outside of St. Louis and while they are here they are staying at a Faith Lutheran Church in our area. They usually spend their time on tornado relief and they decided to focus their efforts this year on supporting food pantries and other organizations’ (like HSP) that help the hungry. 

Not only did this amazing group of volunteers help us out yesterday, but they also came back today and volunteered as well. We would like to thank these wonderful volunteers for taking the time to come and help support us all the way from the St. Louis area. With their help, we will be able to serve 100 families in our next Feed the Kids distribution day.

HSP on AmazonSmile

Our Senior Citizen Project provides groceries
for needy seniors on a monthly basis.

HSP is excited to announce that we are now on AmazonSmile, a program which allows customers to support their favorite charities through purchases made on Amazon. If you already have an Amazon account and would like to participate, register “Humanitarian Service Project” as your charity of choice at smile.amazon.com. Be sure to bookmark the website in your browser since the proceeds will only go to HSP if you are shopping on smile.amazon.com. If you don’t have an account, you would only need to register on Amazon first before completing the previous steps.  A portion of your eligible purchases will go to helping HSP serve needy seniors, children, and families. If you are a frequent Amazon shopper, this is an excellent opportunity to help support HSP without any additional cost to you!

Most Needed Items for Seniors and Families

We are approaching the middle of summer, and HSP is busy with food distribution. HSP is coming up on our second Feed The Kids distribution day, which is less than two weeks away, and we just finished our June delivery day for our Senior Citizen Project. These two projects are so important, and we at HSP love being able to serve families and seniors alike. With so much food going out to feed seniors and families, it takes effort to keep our pantry stocked. You can help HSP provide for these deserving families and seniors by donating essential, nutritious food items. Our most needed items are as follows:

Peanut butter, fruit, cereal, boxed potatoes, stuffing, pancake mix, oatmeal, tuna, as well as other canned meat or fish, and pasta or rice meals, such as Ricearoni, Hamburger Helper, etc.

If you have any questions about donating, don’t hesitate to contact us. We can be reached at 630-221-8340, or by email at hsp@humanitarianservice.org.

A Fond Farewell to Our Adler Interns

This week HSP is saying goodbye to our friends from Adler University who have been completing their Community Service Practicums with us since January. These four graduate students Roxy Gajewski, Alinda Lord, Natalie Haines, and Rabije Hajdini have been helping HSP by interviewing the seniors enrolled in our Senior Citizen Project and writing “updates” about them. These “updates” help us ensure we are meeting our seniors’ needs.

Roxy will be leaving after today, Natalie will complete her practicum next week, Rabije will complete her practicum in a couple of weeks, and Alinda has completed her practicum and will be staying with us as a volunteer for the next couple of months. Each of these women have brought something unique to HSP and have helped contribute to HSP’s mission during their time here. All four of these amazing interns will be greatly missed at HSP. We wish them all the best of luck as they move forward with their education as they enter the final year of their master’s studies. 

Next Week HSP will be at Ribfest!

Ribfest has fun summer activities for all age groups and also raises support for great causes. The money earned at Ribfest will be split up among a number of local charities to help support their programs including our Feed the Kids program. Ribfest is a fun event that supports the community and we hope to see you there!

The Exchange Club of Naperville’s Ribfest starts on July 2^nd and goes through July 5^th. There will be plenty of family fun activities throughout the entire day, including jousting, a mechanical bull, an obstacle course, laser tag, a petting zoo, face painting, and more! Ribfest also has many vendors selling delicious food and drinks you can enjoy while watching different performers that will be on stage all day and night. On July 4^th there will be a fireworks show starting at 9:30 PM.

If you are interested in volunteering there are still spots available. Please contact HSP by calling 630-221-8340 or emailing us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org. 

School Supply Drive

Summer is here which means its school supply season at HSP. Every year through the School Supply Drive, HSP provides supplies to thousands of low-income children. The supplies are distributed to the DuPage Regional Office of Educations’ “Back to School” and Kane County’s “Project Backpack”. HSP will also be sending supplies to a few schools with high populations of poverty in the DuPage and Kane counties. HSP also distributes school supplies to the children enrolled in our Children’s Birthday Project throughout the year.

We are in need of the following items:

v     Backpacks

v     Binders

v     Pens & Pencils

v     Calculators

v     Index Cards

v     Highlighters

v     Rulers

v     Notebooks

v     Folders

v     Paper

v     Colored Pencils

v     Crayons

v     Glue

v     Markers

If you are interested in donating or have any questions please contact HSP by calling 630-221-8340 or by emailing hsp@humanitarianservice.org. 

June Delivery Day

Saturday was another successful Delivery Day for HSP’s Senior Citizen Project, a program which provides groceries on a monthly basis to low-income seniors throughout the area. Every month, over 6.5 tons of fresh produce, meat, bread, non-perishables, paper, and gifts from their “Secret Pal” are distributed to 132 seniors. Several of our seniors also received fans this Saturday to beat the summer heat.

Delivery Day would not have been possible without the help of the dozens of volunteers who made this day a huge success. Volunteer drivers delivered all of the groceries to the seniors in our program. Helping get the drivers out on their routes were our volunteer loaders, who packed up the cars with groceries. We at HSP would like to thank our volunteers for giving their time and efforts this Saturday to make a difference in the lives of the needy seniors in our community.    

If you are interested in becoming involved in our monthly Delivery Day, please contact us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org or by calling (630) 221-8340. 

Thanks to First Presbyterian VBS Service Club and UPS

These past two days, HSP has enjoyed hosting two fantastic volunteer groups, who put their time and energy into helping us out. Yesterday, we had First Presbyterian Church’s Vacation Bible School Service Club come in for one and a half hours to help us prepare for our next Feed the Kids distribution. 17 kids and their adult leaders helped us by boxing food for the families in this program. Once they were finished, the children and adults also sorted paper products for the seniors in our Senior Citizen Project.

Today, HSP had another group of great volunteers share their time to support our mission. We welcomed volunteers from UPS Supply Chain Solutions in Carol Stream. These wonderful volunteers sorted fresh produce and bread for our Senior Citizen Project. These essentials will be distributed to seniors tomorrow, during HSP’s Senior Delivery Day. We want to say thank you to all of these amazing volunteers, we could not do it without you!

Happy Birthday to Allyson

Today HSP had the pleasure of celebrating another special member of our team, our Senior Citizen Project Coordinator, Allyson Armstrong. Allyson brings so much joy and energy to our office, and to the seniors she works to help on a daily basis. She puts so much of herself into her work, making sure our Senior Citizen Project runs smoothly and that all of the seniors enrolled are given the support they need. All of us at HSP were happy to sit down and celebrate Allyson on her special day. HSP would not be the same without her, and we would all like to wish her a very happy birthday!

Thank You Meadows!

Today HSP was honored to have 5 volunteers from Meadows come in and help us get a leg up on our preparations for our July Feed the Kids Distribution Day. Meadows is an Intermediate Care Residential Home that creates a supportive living experience for disabled adults. Over the two hours, our fantastic volunteers helped make boxes to be filled with food for the families served by our Feed the Kids program. Thanks to great volunteer groups like Meadows, we are able to provide care and service to many people in need. We would like to say thank you to these volunteers for coming out and helping us with our preparations for Feed the Kids and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

Happy Birthday Kristin!

Today HSP is celebrating the birthday of our Executive Director, Kristin Maxwell! Kristin puts so much of her time, energy, and self into making sure HSP can make a difference in the lives of the deserving seniors, children, and families we serve. Kristin works with the HSP staff to manage the day to day operations of the five programs HSP has to serve those in need. Kristin continues to push HSP to new limits and fulfill HSP’s mission of alleviating the pain and suffering that poverty brings to seniors and children. Today, HSP sat down to celebrate with Kristin to celebrate her special day.  HSP would not be where it is today without Kristin, so please join us in wishing Kristin a very happy birthday!

Delivery Day Drivers

This Saturday will be our monthly Delivery Day for the needy seniors in the Senior Citizen Project. 131 seniors will receive their monthly 100 pounds of food and personal care items. Today we wanted to highlight a group of volunteers who help make our deliveries successful each month, our delivery drivers.

Our regular drivers deliver groceries to the same seniors every month. They sign up for a time slot on Saturday morning and our volunteers load up their cars with the nutritious groceries our seniors need to maintain their health. They then deliver straight to the seniors’ homes. When our regulars are unavailable, substitute drivers serve their seniors. Substitute Drivers give HSP their e-mail, so that we can reach them when our regular drivers are unavailable to deliver food for the month. Once we know all the routes that are in need of a driver we send e-mails to the substitute drivers and they choose what time slot and route works best for them.

We would not be able to run this program without the help of the amazing drivers that volunteer their time every month and encourage new people to try it out! If you are interested in becoming a Delivery Day driver or have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact us by emailing hsp@humanitarianservice.org or by calling 630.221.8340. 

A Warm Welcome to New Interns

This week, HSP was excited to welcome two new interns, Anna Lapso and Erik Maranto, to our summer intern team. Anna has taken on the role of our Grant Writing intern, and will be helping HSP seek out grant funding for our programs to serve those in need throughout DuPage and Kane counties. Anna is an English major at Elmhurst College. She is extremely passionate about writing, and is excited to have found an internship that will allow her to apply and develop her skills while also serving others. Anna is very interested in our programs here at HSP, especially those affecting children. Anna’s interests include recreational writing and reading. Erik, who has joined the team as HSP’s Project Management intern, will be helping us reach out to members of the community and service groups, educating them about HSP, and establishing relationships with them. Erik also attends Elmhurst College, where he majors in Business Administration, with a minor in Organizational Communication. After graduating, Erik plans on starting his career, and he would like to be an active alum for Elmhurst College and his fraternity. He was attracted to HSP because the community was very inviting, and because of the amazing work they do to help those in need. His biggest hope for this internship is to plan a successful event while expanding his skill set. Erik’s other interests include fishing and spending quality time with his family and friends. Please help us give these two a nice warm welcome!

Support HSP at the Exchange Club of Naperville’s Ribfest

Ribfest is only a month away and we are looking for a few more volunteers to help. Ribfest is a charity event sponsored by the Exchange Club of Naperville and will be hosted at Naperville’s Knoch Park from July 2^nd -July 5^th. At Ribfest there will be concerts, carnival rides, and other fun attractions for the whole family. The fest is geared towards raising money to support children’s charitable causes including our Feed the Kids program. For more information on Ribfest, visit their website at ribfest.net.

The more volunteers who represent HSP at the event results in more funding to help serve and support low-income families. There is a particular need for volunteers from 4pm-10pm on July 3^rd and July 5^th. Also, there is a big need for volunteers from either 11am-5pm or 4pm-10pm on July 4^th. There are only a few volunteer slots available so sign up quick! If you are interested in volunteering or have any questions please contact HSP at 630-221-8340 or by email hsp@humanitarianservice.org. We look forward to hearing from you! Even if you can’t volunteer; we hope to see you at Ribfest on 4^th of July weekend for some family fun!

Feed the Kids’ First Distribution

HSP started out strong for our summer Feed the Kids program. The first distribution day was filled with high energy, the warehouse was full of activity, and cars were lined up down the street.  HSP’s Feed the Kids program, which takes place during the months of June, July, and August, serves 100 families, with each family receiving 175-200 pounds of non-perishable food, fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, and a variety of meat. This program serves low-income families whose children are enrolled in free/subsidized meal programs at school. Since these children do not receive these meals in the summer, HSP steps in to provide nutritious food for these families. As a bonus we also had donated children’s clothes and summer toys, and the families were invited to look through these items and take home any that they wanted. HSP would not have been able to accomplish all that we did for our first distribution day of the year if it were not for our fantastic volunteers. We had individual volunteers and a large number of volunteers from the Carol Stream “Panther” chapter of the Young Men Service League and from the National Charity League. These wonderful men and women spent the day greeting families and loading grocery packages into cars, making it possible for HSP to serve all of our Feed the Kids families. 

Thank You UPS!

Tomorrow is HSP’s first distribution day of our Feed the Kids program this summer! 100 families will come and pick up over 10 tons of groceries to help feed and support them through the month of June. HSP is grateful for the volunteers of UPS of Carol Stream who came in and helped with last minute preparations. The 9 energetic volunteers helped sort bread and meat as we busily prepared for our big day tomorrow.

Not only did these volunteers help with Feed the Kids, they are also regular volunteers who come in and help in the preparation for our monthly Senior Citizen Project Delivery Days as well. We thank UPS of Carol Stream for the continuous support that they provide. Without their help, many of the great things that HSP does would not be possible. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

Summer Birthday Boxes

Today marked the last delivery of birthday boxes for the school year to one of our partner schools. With the help of our wonderful volunteers Bill and Dean, HSP was able to distribute birthday boxes to Lake Park Elementary in Addison, who we have been partnered with for several years now. Head Start programs and elementary schools like Lake Park have 80% or more of their students below the poverty line and work with HSP throughout the year for our Children’s Birthday Project. This project provides kids of low-income families with a birthday box filled with toys, books, school supplies, and party supplies to celebrate their special day.  In preparation for school letting out for the summer, HSP has distributed all boxes for summer birthdays to our partnering schools. Lake Park received 43 birthday boxes today! This would not have been possible without the help of our volunteers who wrapped presents and packed boxes. Thank you for giving your time and effort to this project.

Wrappers Needed

Summer is finally here, and HSP is looking for some wonderful people to become volunteer wrappers. Throughout the summer, HSP is attempting to stay ahead of the game and wrap gifts for hundreds of the 925 children served by our Children’s Birthday Project. To do this, we need the help of volunteer wrappers. The wrappers tell us how many children they would like to wrap gifts for, and they receive bags for each child, full of gifts which our volunteers take home to wrap. Once they are finished, our wrappers bring the gifts back to HSP, where we put together the birthday boxes. It takes so much effort to get the boxes put together and wrapped, and HSP would not be able to do it if it were not for our fantastic volunteers. If you are interested in being a volunteer wrapper, or if you have any questions about volunteering, please contact us at 630-221-8340, or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org. 

Thank you, Human Race Supporters and Giving DuPage

We here at HSP are feeling incredibly blessed, and it is all thanks to those who gave their time to help us out. Yesterday, at the Giving DuPage check presentation, HSP received the $2,537.50 raised by our supporters through the Human Race, the 5k in which employees of HSP and many of our supporters participated on April 25th.  We would like to say thank you to those who put their time and energy into the race, as runners, walkers, and donors. The funds will be split between our Senior Citizen Project and our Children’s Birthday Project.  The funds for our Senior Citizen Project will fully sponsor two seniors. This will help to provide them with nutritious groceries and other necessities for an entire year. The funds for our Children’s Birthday Project will help sponsor about 17 children. This will help to provide each of them a “birthday box” full of toys, games, books, school supplies, and party supplies. This money will make an incredible difference in the lives of those we serve, and it is all thanks to the dedicated HSP supporters and our hardworking friends at Giving DuPage that made this event possible. 

Thank You Lexis Nexis!

Today HSP was delighted to host 8 lively volunteers from Lexis Nexis. Lexis Nexis has volunteered with HSP many times before and we were excited to see them again. They helped for 3 hours to package 150 boxes for the families in our Feed the Kids Project. These boxes will be given to families in July and contain non-perishable meals and snacks to support them through the month. Families in the program have their fist pick-up date beginning next Wednesday June 8th.
Along with the boxes of non-perishables, the families will also receive meat, fresh fruits and vegetables, and other items. We wish to thank Lexis Nexis and all the other wonderful volunteers who graciously gave their time to help needy families in this program and we hope to see you again soon!

School Supplies

Now that June is here HSP is starting its annual School Supply Drive program. HSP collects supplies for over 3,000 low-income children throughout DuPage and Kane counties. In August we will be sending supplies to support the DuPage Regional Office of Educations’ “Back to School” and Kane County’s “Project Backpack”. We will also be sending supplies to a number of local schools with high populations of poverty. Children enrolled in our Children’s Birthday Project will also receive school supplies in their birthday boxes throughout the year.
   We have a great need for the following items:

	v     Backpacks v     Binders v     Writing Utensils v     Post-It Notes v     Index Cards v     Highlighters v     Rulers		v     Notebooks v     Folders v     Paper v     Colored Pencils v     Crayons v     Glue v     Markers

 

If you are interested in donating or have any questions please contact HSP by calling 630-221-8340 or by emailing hsp@humanitarianservice.org.

Thank You Wheaton Warrenville South Key Club!

Last Friday, HSP was delighted to receive a wonderful donation of paper products from the Key Club at Wheaton Warrenville South High School. They collected enough facial tissue, paper towels, and toilet paper to fill an entire SUV. Every month HSP distributes hundreds of these paper products to the seniors enrolled in our Senior Citizen Project. Thank you Key Club for thinking of others even with the end of the school year approaching when it is so busy!

It takes a lot of support to fulfill this need every month and we have a particular need for facial tissue. If you would like to help donate paper products please contact HSP by calling 630-221-8340 or by emailing hsp@humanitarianservice.org.