Lake County volunteers help feed the hungry

For more than seven hours on Saturday, business people, church groups, and Boy and Girl Scout troops worked in sync to provide 100,000 meals to malnourished children throughout the world.

The event for Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) was sponsored by Lake Bluff business Lindemann Chimney Supply Co. and held at East Lake Academy Roman Catholic School in Lake Forest.

Not only is the school close to the business, but it is where two of owner Rob Lindemann’s children attend.

FMSC started in 1987 and is a non-profit Christian organization committed to feeding the hungry with the help of thousands of volunteers throughout the United States. The approach is simple: Children and adults hand-pack meals specifically formulated for undernourished children. The meals are then shipped off to nearly 70 countries around the world, where they are distributed to those in need.

Mike Boudart, a manager at Lindemann Chimney said each year the company participates with some kind of volunteer service. This year they decided to help out FMSC, after Boudart explained he had been part of the FMSC “MobilePack” event previously at his church. That was right around the time of the recent earthquake in Haiti.

“While we aren’t really sure where these meals will be going, I have a feeling some might be heading to Japan, because of what’s happened there,” Boudart said.

Helping to measure and bag the various components for the meals was Haitian immigrant Yves Louis-Charles of Round Lake, part of an Allstate Insurance company group that got together. “This is a good thing that they’re doing this,” she said. “It makes me so happy to be helping others. Maybe it’ll even be helping some of my people.”

Her daughter, Carmel Catholic High School junior Christa Louis-Charles, said the event fits right in with the community service she is required to complete as a student at Carmel.

Other volunteers placed the packets of meals into boxes and loaded boxes onto pallets. Some people then wrapped the pallets in plastic and finally they were all packed into a semi trailer in front of the academy.

As a Charlie Daniels song blared across the grade school gymnasium, Girl Scout leader Cindy Fidanze and her six-year-old son Dominic showed their rhythm while placing scoops of rice and dried vegetables into a funnel. “I’m so glad they have music. It makes it a lot of fun,” she said, as five Girl Scouts she brought from Grayslake Troop 40730 participated.

The meal mix includes rice, soy protein, dehydrated vegetables and dried chicken broth, which has essential vitamins and minerals. All that’s needed to make a good, nutritious meal for the hungry folks is a little water and some cooking.

Others working for the assembly line-style event included retiree Cornelius O’Connor of Bensenville. “My daughter said if I come to work with her today, she’ll buy me lunch,” he explained.

“This will make an awful lot of lunches for people who need it,” added his daughter Ginny Chiappetta of Elmhurst, an Allstate employee.

East Lake Academy sixth-grader Charlie Kiernan of Lake Forest measured each bagful of components on a small scale. “They have to weigh between 300 and 400 grams,” he said, methodically measuring the weight. “I really like this job. It’s helping others and that’s what I like doing.”

More than 32 million meals were produced by FMSC volunteers last year. For more information, visit www.fmsc.org.

U.S. & Global

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