Teens' efforts will help food pantry fight hunger

When a group of high school students announced last fall that they intended to raise $100,000 for the Palatine Township food pantry, some adults around them admitted they were skeptical.

"I truly had my doubts," concedes Linda Fleming, Palatine Township supervisor.

Now, Fleming heads the list of believers. In fact, she and her township board of commissioners will present this same group of teens with a commendation at their board meeting Tuesday.

Known collectively as Youth Hunger Opposition in Palatine, or YHOP, the students surpassed their goal -- in a little over five months -- and have collected more than $105,000, they announced last week.

"I was awestruck when I heard," Fleming adds. "It's just amazing that a group of high school students would care so much about other people."

Kellie Kinsella, a Fremd High School senior and director of the group, describes the fundraising campaign as a grassroots effort that drew the widespread support of youth groups, individuals, churches and businesses.

"I'd be willing to guess that more than 5,000 people in the community helped to push us past our goal," says Kinsella, who was named to the Daily Herald Leadership Team in January.

Their goal at the start had been to eliminate hunger in Palatine Township. They hoped that by establishing an ongoing fund for the food pantry, township officials would be able to provide food -- without interruption -- to the families it serves each month.

The Palatine Township food pantry serves 180 families every month, who come predominantly from Palatine, but also parts of Rolling Meadows, Inverness, Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates, Barrington, South Barrington and Schaumburg.

Now, Fleming says, they have collected so much money that she foresees designing it as something of an endowment fund, where they would use half of the funds, while leaving the remaining as investment income, making it self-sustaining.

"We can make some long-range plans now," Fleming says. "This has been enough of a jump-start that we're looking at establishing the food pantry in a stand-alone building, and possibly joining together with other churches that run food pantries."

Township officials also are in the midst of applying for a community block grant to help purchase a van, to create a mobile food pantry, to bring food directly to needy families, that these funds might help make a reality.

What started with a collection at the football game between Fremd and Palatine high schools in September, grew to include bake sales, car washes, raffles and other efforts by high school clubs and church youth groups.

But area church congregations and businesses also pledged to help, holding their own fundraisers and then turning over the funds directly to Palatine Township.

In fact, Kinsella credits the churches with pushing them over the top, as well as a recent dinner dance that netted $16,000, and an anonymous $10,000 donation.

Participating churches included: All Saints Lutheran, Bethel Lutheran, Christ Lutheran, Christ the King Lutheran, Countryside Church Unitarian Universalist, First United Methodist, Immanuel Lutheran, Prince of Peace Lutheran, St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox, St. Paul United Church of Christ, St. Theresa, and the Presbyterian Church, all in Palatine; Holy Family Catholic Church in Inverness; and Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington.