Lake County churches unite to stamp out hunger

A massive volunteer effort to feed Lake County's hungry kicks off this month as part of ShareFest 2007.

The countywide food drive is organized by roughly 35 Lake County churches whose volunteers will canvass neighborhoods and drop off between 25,000 to 30,000 bags at households starting this weekend.

The project was started four years ago by Karen Shoopman of Gurnee as a way to teach her kids to help other people.

"We started with a little red wagon that we took through our neighborhood, and I collected a 100 cans in that," said Shoopman, volunteer food drive coordinator. "It's grown exponentially every year."

ShareFest became a countywide movement three years ago. This year, the Northern Illinois Food Bank will send tractor trailers to eight collection sites throughout Lake County, where hundreds of volunteers will sort the bags of donations. The food is distributed to area food pantries.

"This is going to be the largest food drive in Lake County," Shoopman said. "Even though we live in one of the richest counties in the nation there's great need in our communities."

Last year, more than 40,000 pounds of food was collected through the drive.

Though ShareFest is a church-based effort, community groups are welcome to participate, said Rachel Snyder, ShareFest coordinator for Catalyst, a coalition of Lake County churches that is the event's main sponsor.

"Our desire is to eliminate hunger in Lake County," Snyder said. "We want everybody to participate but we are doing it in the name of Jesus. I think the primary way they can get involved is to donate food."

Lake County residents are asked to fill the bags with food, household items, cleaning supplies and toiletries and leave them at the curb for volunteers to pick up each weekend starting Oct. 13.

"Various communities will be gathering the food donations at different times," Snyder said.

Residents also may drop off filled bags at eight collection sites throughout the county. For dates and locations, visit www.catalystweb.org.

Roughly 23,000 food bags also will be inserted inside Oct. 16 editions of the Daily Herald, a ShareFest co-sponsor. Those bags must be dropped off at a collection site.

The month-long food drive will cover the entire county, from Antioch to Barrington and Lake Zurich to Lake Forest. But it is only one part of ShareFest.

ShareFest involves more than 15,000 volunteers and 54 churches throughout Lake County that undertake projects such as providing school supplies to children, home repairs and painting, facilitating renovations, blood drives, cleanup, senior citizen visitation, and making meals for public servants.

"It's just a phenomenal effort," said Bill Yaccino, executive director of Catalyst. "We have a concentrated effort in October (but) there are projects that continue throughout the year."

If you go

The annual Sharefest food drive benefiting the Northern Illinois Food Bank and area food pantries kicks off this month in communities throughout Lake County. Here's how you can help.

Food drop-off locations

• Oct. 13 to 14: North Point Church, 900 N. Lewis Ave., Winthrop Harbor; Village Church of Gurnee, 1319 N. Hunt Club Road; The Chapel Barrington, 180 N. Hawthorne Road, Barrington Hills.

• Oct. 20 to 21: The Chapel Grayslake, 25270 W. Highway 60; Iglesia Emanuel, 1300 10th St., Waukegan; Christ Church of Lake Forest, 100 N. Waukegan Road.

• Oct. 27 to 28: The Chapel Libertyville, 1200 American Way; Harvest Bible Chapel, 255 Quentin Road, Lake Zurich.

For more information about ShareFest visit www.sharefest.net or call Rachel Snyder at (847) 281-3321.

Source: Catalyst