Record-setting effort to feed the needy
Volunteers from Stericycle Inc. came to Libertyville on Friday with a mission and left with a record.
About 150 company volunteers lined metal tables to pack meals at the Feed My Starving Children facility and filled 342 boxes with "Manna Packs," the proprietary nutritional supplements, during a two-hour stint. That represents the equivalent of 73,872 meals to be distributed to malnourished children worldwide.
"We were very competitive. Our intention was to break the record," said Michelle Flood, who works for the global business-to-business services company based in Lake Forest. Volunteers were from the Lake Forest and Northbrook locations.
Flood said a group of Stericycle members claimed the record two years ago by packing 286 boxes. In January, a second group of employees from around the country notched 324 boxes. This prompted the northern Illinois workers to reclaim the title, she explained.
The effort comes at the right time as Feed My Starving Children is challenged for volunteers.
"Summer is our slow season because schools and other community groups like the Boy Scouts wind down for the year," according to Valencia Breckenridge, major gifts officer for Feed My Starving Children, a faith-based nonprofit that prepares, packages and delivers meals to malnourished children.
Stericycle, through its SteriCares initiative, has worked with Feed My Starving Children since it opened in November 2012.
About 30 million meals each year are packaged at the Libertyville location, one of eight Feed My Starving Children sites in the U.S.