Mac 'n Cheese with a Musical Twist!

Today HSP received a very entertaining donation from Congregation Etz Chaim. A thriving center of Reform Judaism, they play an active role in the community and have had a successful relationship with HSP for almost ten years now. They recently held a service Wednesday March 7th with a musical twist in which they used macaroni and cheese boxes as noisemakers. After the service was over, the organization donated five large garbage bags full of boxed macaroni and cheese to the HSP food drive. This donation along with other food donations will be used in the Feed The Kids Project this summer. All of us here at HSP would like to thank members of the Congregation Etz Chaim for their kind and generous donation!

If you or someone you know is looking to get involved with your community, then contact us! We are currently looking for food donations for our Feed the Kids Project that serves over 300 children in 100 families in Kane and Dupage counties. If interested please contact us at (630) 221-8340 or email us at hsp@humanitarianservice.org.

Become a Senior's Secret Pal

We at the Humanitarian Service Project are committed to making sure the needy senior citizens served by our project do not have to face the challenges that aging and poverty bring, all on their own. With their limited resources being stretched under rising healthcare costs, rent, and other important expenses, HSP’s Senior Citizen Project is designed to make sure the seniors in our program have their needs met. Our monthly deliveries of 90 pounds of much needed groceries (including fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen meats, bread, non-perishables, and paper products) go to make sure the seniors are getting the nourishment they need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, another issue the needy seniors in our project often face is the loneliness and isolation that their circumstances often bring. This is where HSP’s “secret pals” enter in the equation. Each month, our secret pal donors buy a small gift, between $5 and $25. The gifts not only provide seniors with items that they are in need of and are unable to procure for themselves, but, more importantly, the gift shows the senior that they are cared for.


The secret pals in our program have all made a marvelous impact in the lives of the needy seniors we serve. One senior wrote to her secret pal, “You’re an angel, a star, a blessing.” We currently have several seniors who have not yet been matched up with secret pals to be their angel, star, and blessing. If this sounds like a way you would be interested in helping HSP reach out to a needy senior, please consider becoming a secret pal. Please call us at 630-221-8340 with questions or to sign up.

“Win-Win” Service

For the past couple of weeks, Humanitarian Service Project has been delighted to host several students from College of DuPage who are completing their community service hours for the college’s “service learning program.” The program is designed to give the students outside the classroom experience through projects that serve the community. College of DuPage characterizes the program as a “win-win” which allows the student to both help others, as well as personally grow both academically and as a member of the community. As a community partner of this program, we at HSP are big fans, as we get to see this “win-win” scenario in action. We have had wonderful service learning students in the past, and the current group of seven students has been doing great as well. (Above: Shabnam, a student in COD’s service learning program, assisting in HSP’s toy room.)

HSP’s Assistant Director, Kristin Maxwell, who has been supervising the service learning students, mentioned what an “excellent job” they have all been doing. The service learning students have contributed to both our Children’s Birthday Project and Senior Citizen Project in a number of different ways. They have assisted in every step of the birthday box creation process for the needy children that we serve, including; sorting gifts, creating activity kits, wrapping presents, and organizing our shipping room. They have also been involved in helping HSP reach out to needy senior citizens by assisting in the preparation and execution of our senior delivery day last month. The service learning students have been doing excellent work, and their help has enabled HSP to reach many children and senior citizens in need.

Wrapping Paper Needed

          Today may be unseasonably warm for March, but we at the Humanitarian Service Project are already thinking ahead to the even warmer months. With the recent addition of 329 needy children from Lake Park Elementary in Addison into our Children’s Birthday Project, we at HSP have been mobilizing to make more and more birthday boxes. With the end of the school year only a few months away, HSP’s staff and volunteers have been working hard to get a leg up on the gifts for the children at Lake Park, not only with birthdays in springtime, but in the summer as well.

          One way you can help is a donation of wrapping paper. Generally, most of the gifts which go out to the needy children served by our program are wrapped by our volunteer wrappers, who pick up the gifts at our center in Carol Stream, wrap the gifts using their own wrapping paper and ribbon, and return them in a few weeks. However, recently, in order to make the recent expansion of the project a reality, we’ve wrapped a number of presents at HSP as well. In order to keep this pace going, we could certainly use more wrapping paper and ribbon to wrap the gifts. If you would like to contribute to HSP’s goal of providing needy children with plenty of birthday smiles, please consider donating wrapping paper or ribbon. You can learn more about our Children’s Birthday Project from our website at: http://www.humanitarianservice.org/whatwedo/bdayproject.html, or call us with questions at 630-221-8340.

Paper Products Needed!

The impoverished seniors in our program often have to make tough decisions regarding where the little money they receive goes. With the cost of rent, medication, and other important expenses, many seniors have to go without many items necessary to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. At the Humanitarian Service Project, it is part of our mission to help provide the needy seniors in our project with these items. Every month, HSP delivers over 90 pounds of groceries to each of our seniors including fresh produce, frozen meats, bread, non-perishable food, a small gift from their “secret pal,” and paper products to make sure they have access to healthy food and their needs are met.

In order to reach all of the needy seniors in our project with these items, many of HSP’s wonderful supporters have contributed in the past. One thing that we have a specific need for is paper goods, particularly facial tissue. Every year, HSP sends out 8,064 rolls of toilet paper, 2,688 rolls of paper towels, and 2,688 boxes of facial tissue, in order to provide our seniors with what they need to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. If you, or a group you belong to, would be interested in helping needy senior citizens, a donation of paper goods would be both a thoughtful and practical way to lend a hand. Please call us at 630-221-8340 with any questions.

Monthly Meals Spotlight

We at the Humanitarian Service Project would like to put the spotlight on some very special local restaurants that are participating in our Monthly Meals Program! These establishments are donating hot and hearty meals to needy seniors in our program and are helping us to start the month of March off with a bang! Thank you all for your generous contributions to our project! Because of you we will be able to supply our seniors with a hearty and hot treat!

Village Tavern (Carol Stream)

Olive Garden (Bloomingdale)

Culvers (Carol Stream)

Applebee’s (Bloomingdale)

If you would be interested in picking up a donated meal from one of the restaurants listed above and delivering it to a needy senior living in DuPage Co. please do not hesitate to contact us! We would love to be able to get these meals to those most in need! Not only does it provide our seniors with a hot meal, but it also helps show them that there are individuals in the community that still care!

Thank you again to the restaurants, the seniors in our program truly appreciate the hot meals that are you provide for them!

Springing into Service

The vernal equinox (the first official day of spring) may still be a couple of weeks away, but today marks the beginning of meteorological spring, the time when weather patterns generally shift away from winter weather and towards spring weather. The idea of spring weather is sure to illicit a number of different images in the people’s minds, but the thought of blooming flowers is probably one of the most accepted symbols of spring. The sight of flowers revealing their petals after the long winter can certainly be a soothing sight. The Lombard Garden Club seems to agree with us, because just yesterday they made a wonderful donation of 48 baskets of artificial flower arrangements to help the needy seniors in our Senior Citizen Project ring in the spring. These baskets are quite striking, and will surely bring smiles to the faces of the needy seniors in our program. We want to thank the Lombard Garden Club for this beautiful donation.

The baskets were dropped off at our center in Carol Stream yesterday by Lombard Garden Club co-president Cher Herlache. According to Cher, the club has been making these baskets for needy seniors as a service project for a number of years. This year, the club decided to donate them to HSP after learning about our program. If you too would be interested in brightening the day of a needy senior or child with a donation, like this fantastic one from the Lombard Garden Club, please call us at 630-221-8340.