Northern Illinois Food Bank gets boost from NFL (and Campbell's)
When you think about soup, there's a chance you think about your mother as well. The two went together quite nicely during our youth, and it's a well-known combination in a series of commercials in which mothers of NFL stars encourage their sons to continue eating soup.
Donovan McNabb's mother isn't the only one pushing the benefits of soup. And because of that, the Northern Illinois Food Bank in St. Charles stands to benefit greatly.
Alicia McCareins of Naperville, the mother of former Northern Illinois standout and current Tennessee Titans wide receiver Justin McCareins, is part of a group of NFL moms joining with Campbell's Soup to push the NFL's "Tackling Hunger" program. All of the moms involved in the program got 500 cans of soup to kick-start their campaigns, and McCareins took her soup to the St. Charles center.
Campbell's will donate 1 million cans of soup to the nation's food bank network, above and beyond what the NFL moms are able to collect.
The three NFL moms who collect the most food will win a trip to the Super Bowl. While it is a nice motivator, McCareins, who has been to the Super Bowl twice, is more interested in helping the local food bank.
"We are making a great effort to fill the coffers of food banks across the country," McCareins said. "I am more interested in the generosity and giving of food to the hungry, than I am about winning a trip to the Super Bowl.
"We are filling a critical need," she added. "The intrinsic reward for me will be my ability to get the word out among the 13 counties the Northern Illinois Food Bank serves, inspire people in those communities to donate food, and by the end of this year, significantly increase the food supply in the warehouse in St. Charles.
"Plus I would take great pride in conveying to the world that people in the Northern Illinois Food Bank's region have big hearts and were one of the top three national food donors in the country."
A list of drop-off sites is available at northernilfoodbank.org.
Mad about monks: Of all the combinations of words I have written in my columns the past 30-plus years, I have not used the words mad and monks in the same reference.
There's a first time for everything, and so it is with a note about a group of seven gentlemen who call themselves the Mad Monks. They just happen to be a jazz band specializing in New Orleans-style jazz. They'll perform at the 10 a.m. Sunday service at First Congregational Church in Geneva.
That's more like it: It was a festival planner's dream. The one wish they would love to have granted every time.
The weather for the St. Charles Scarecrow Festival was fantastic, and it showed with the massive crowds enjoying the festivities.
This is what Festival of the Vine in Geneva needed three weeks ago.
So if St. Charles Visitors Bureau members have a secret they'd like to share, it would be worth a lot of money to other festival planners.