Huskies feast on chance to help

Julie Chin played on a club girls volleyball team this summer that never lost a match.

Her biggest assist, though, may have come off the court.

Chin, a Naperville North senior, was one of 61 members of the Huskies volleyball program to volunteer at the Feed My Starving Children packaging facility in Aurora on Aug. 23.

That morning the girls packaged 17,928 meals to be shipped off to children in the West African country of Angola.

"I hadn't done anything like it before," Chin said.

Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit founded in 1987, produces, packages and delivers hot and nutritious meals to needy children around the world. In 2007 nearly 185,000 volunteers at its three sites in Minnesota and Aurora facility produced 43 million meals that went to more than 50 countries including El Salvador, Sudan and India.

A formula consisting of rice, soy nuggets, a vegetarian chicken flavoring and dehydrated vegetables is packaged in small pouches - a blend that produces six meals. The formula is specifically designed to meet the nutritional needs of the world's most hungry children.

The Naperville North girls heard of the program through a local church that previously volunteered at FMSC. Before work began, they were shown a video depicting the plight of children receiving the meals; kids from underdeveloped countries where malnutrition is rampant. In Angola, a country torn apart by a 27-year civil war, nearly half of the children under 5 years of age are malnourished.

"The pictures they showed were kind of horrific," senior Nrithya Sundararaman said. "It definitely puts things in perspective. We are very fortunate in a sense that we can eat six times a day with snacks. They don't have that privilege."

With four girls at a station, one held a bag under a funnel while the others poured in rice, soy and vegetables. Packed in a dry pouch, the ingredients can be cooked with boiling water for a healthy meal. The meals the Naperville North girls packed in one morning will feed nearly 50 children for an entire year.

"Being able to help those children," Chin said, "it's a good feeling."

Chin called it a great bonding experience. Of course, the girls' competitive nature came out.

"It was a great environment and very energetic," Sundararaman said. "We had people running back and forth from the storage area. We had competitions at separate tables to see how many we could pack. Sometimes people say that volunteering can be boring, but it was a lot of fun."

They even got a taste of the meals.

"It was good," Chin said. "I would eat it, if it was given to me."

Chin enjoyed a memorable summer on the court as well.

She played on the Sports Performance 18 Elite team that won the Junior Volleyball Directors Association National Championship in June in Louisville.

That team, which included former Naperville North standout Colleen Ward, ex-St. Francis star Megan Barnicle and national Player of the Year Kelly Murphy from Joliet Catholic, has not lost in its last 120 matches.

"It was an honor to be on that team with such great, talented people," Chin said. "I don't think there will ever be a team like that again."

Chin did not get extensive playing time. She did, though, get the opportunity to learn from the best. That can only help her this fall.

"I learned a lot, mostly about how to perform under pressure," she said. "We just played it game-by-game and focused on that game. They knew each other's role, what they were supposed to do. That team met the expectations people had of them every time they stepped on the court."