TH UR SDA Y , D E C E M B E R 15, 20 16
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MEALS PACKED WITH LOVE
Montgomery woman leads effort to bring Feed My Starving Children event to Yorkville By TONY SCOTT tscott@kendallcountynow.com A group of Kendall County residents has spearheaded a fundraising event for a charity that feeds hungry children in developing countries, and will involve hundreds of volunteers. The event is called “It Takes A Village – Yorkville,” and it appears that the group is taking that name to heart, aiming for a community-based mission to feed hungry children. The event is for the charity organization Feed My Starving Children, which sends packs of nutrient-enriched rice and other food to 76 partners in more than 52 countries, according to the charity. The organization has locations in northern Illinois, including Aurora and Schaumburg, but it also offers what are called MobilePack events, where volunteers organize food packing events in their own communities. One of the main organizers, Katie Morton of Montgomery, said she and her family have volunteered at the organization’s location in Aurora. “It’s just a great organization that we like to be involved with and support,” she said. “At the end of each packing event, when you get done packing the food, they tell you how much food you’ve packed, where it’s going, what country it’s going to, and ultimately how much it costs to do all the meals.” Following Hurricane Matthew in October, Morton said the organization asked for help packing more meals on top of those that they were sending to hurricane victims in Haiti. Morton said that was when she spoke with staff at Feed My Starving Children and learned about MobilePack events. “It’s all the same stuff,” she said. “They just bring us the pallets of rice and pallets of everything, they bring it all out to us. We’re doing the same thing, we’re just doing it out here.” Morton said this will allow the event to be more localized, getting local businesses and organizations involved. “The benefit to that is you can make it more of a community-wide event, where you get your scout troops involved and businesses involved,” she said. Some MobilePack events have become
Tony Scott - tscott@kendallcountynow.com
Organizers Katie Morton of Montgomery (left) and Geri Benning of Plano are among those putting together a Feed My Starving Children event at Yorkville Middle School in Jan. 13 and 14. annual traditions, such as one in Sycamore. A variety of local charities and social organizations packed food at the Suter Company in Sycamore in November, with more than 4,700 volunteers packing more than 1 million meals, according to the DeKalb Rotary Club, one of the participants in the event. It was the seventh annual MobilePack event at that location. Morton said she would like the Kendall County event to become an annual tradition like the Sycamore MobilePack event. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, one step at a time, but that would be
amazing to make it an annual event,” she said. Morton and a team of volunteer organizers – including Geri Benning of Plano, Bridge and Christy Nameche of Montgomery, and Angie Howard of Yorkville, among others – have been reaching out to local organizations and businesses, getting volunteers and sponsorships for the January event. Individuals and groups can set up fundraising goals for the Yorkville event through the charity’s website. Morton and other organizers have also been holding restaurant fundraisers, where a percentage of the sales goes
toward the cost of the food packs. They recently held a fundraiser at the Oswego Chick-fil-A restaurant Dec. 13, and another is planned at the Yorkville Panera Bread next Wednesday, Dec. 21, where 15 to 20 percent of sales will go to Feed My Starving Children if customers present a flier. The flier is available through Morton. And on Jan. 4 from 6 to 9 p.m., the Yorkville Rosati’s will donate 20 percent of sales toward the MobilePack event, Morton said.
See MOBILEPACK, page 9