Willow Creek campaign raises $2 million in two days

Despite the uncertain economy, an annual Willow Creek Community Church fundraising campaign benefiting starving African children managed to bring in $1.3 million more this year than in 2008.

Officials from the South Barrington church said they've raised $2 million for the Feed My Starving Children, a Minnesota-based charity which provides meals and sends them to countries including Sudan and Zimbabwe. Last year the same campaign raised around $700,000.

Willow Creek's Heather Larson said no one was prepared for such an outpouring of generosity. She credits the church's teachings during its annual Celebration of Hope campaign for the increase in donations. Churchgoers found appreciation for the resources available to them and understood not everyone was so lucky.

"What a recession is for us is a matter of life and death for people in extreme poverty," Larson said.

The church collected money during services on May 2 and May 3. Besides that, over the course of less than a month, Willow Creek and its associate churches throughout the Chicago area packed 4.2 million meals consisting of rice, dehydrated vegetables and soy nuggets. The meals will feed 40,000 Zimbabweans for 90 days. The meals, which cost about 17 cents apiece, were packed at churches, schools and other locales by more than 17,000 volunteers.

This year, Celebration of Hope also focused on clean water, as Larson notes a child dies ever 15 seconds from a water-related illness. The church also shipped water sanitary supplies to Zimbabwe.

Feed My Children also works with many other area churches, including St. Mark Lutheran Church in Mount Prospect and St. Thomas the Apostle in Naperville.