Secret Pals Needed for Needy Seniors

The Humanitarian Service Project (HSP,) of DuPage County, is seeking community members interested in serving local, seniors in need, to participate in their “Secret Pal program.” The program, part of HSP's Senior Citizen Project, provides needy, local seniors with household, or other, items they require to maintain a healthy or comfortable lifestyle.

Participants in the Secret Pal program, are assigned a needy senior, and purchase them a $5-$25 gift for their senior, which is delivered to the seniors with the 100 lb. delivery of nutritious groceries they receive from HSP each month.

Karole Kettering, Executive Director and Co-founder of HSP, said of the program, “Poverty has a profoundly negative impact on the wellbeing of many needy seniors throughout our communities. The participants in our Secret Pal program, give these seniors the heartfelt service of fulfilling a practical need in their lives, as well as showing them that they truly are cared for.”

The purpose of the Senior Citizen Project, which the Secret Pal program is a part of, is to provide for the basic and nutritional needs of 121 needy, local seniors. HSP does so by providing monthly deliveries of 100 lbs of groceries to each of the 121 seniors in the program which include: selections of 7 fresh fruits and 8 vegetables, 7 frozen meats, 6 bags of non-perishable foods, 2 bags of paper products and personal care items.