Feed my Children opens in Schaumburg

On any given night, one warehouse in Schaumburg could be feeding around 10,000 children in Africa, the Philippines or Haiti.

That warehouse is the newest location of Feed My Starving Children, a Christian charity which also has three facilities in the Minneapolis area and one in Aurora. The group also has a temporary location in Tempe, Ariz.

Feed My Starving Children hopes to eventually have five locations around Chicago. Schaumburg was chosen for the newest location - it opened just over a week ago - because it was located around a lot of churches, which is important because all the meals which are sent to starving children around the world are packed by volunteers.

"We're a Christian organization, so that's where we're going to get most of our volunteers from," said Bea Pedersen, the organization's Chicago area development director.

On Tuesday night, two groups from Crystal Lake were volunteering - the Junior High Youth Group from Christian Fellowship, and a group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The members of the youth group try to come out twice a year, said parent and volunteer Mary Anne Haskins. She considers volunteering at places like Feed My Starving Children to be part of her faith, and her job as a parent.

"I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, and he commands us to feed the hungry, and as a follower of him I have to obey," she said. "I'm also trying to set an example for my children, so they can understand that its important to serve and not be served."

At Feed My Starving Children, teams work together to a soundtrack of pop music to create a bag that contains chicken-flavored powder, dried vegetables, soy and rice. Each bag is filled through a funnel, sealed and placed in a box. Each bag contains six meals, and a box contains 18 bags.

Mike McLeland, one of the leaders of the Christian Fellowship youth group, said that the whole experience, including an opportunity to taste the food they've prepared at the end, gives volunteering at Feed My Starving Children a unique feel.

"I guess the thing I like about Feed My Starving Children is its like getting a mission experience without having to leave the country," he said.

Michelle Fitzgerald, a member of the LDS Crystal Lake church, brought her children and a number of their friends from the church along. Many of them had previously worked on similar projects in response to this year's devastating Haiti earthquake.

Carrie Hansen, 15, said she thought working at Feed My Starving Children was "really cool."

For now, the Schaumburg location is only running volunteer shifts in the evenings as it begins its operations. That is helping to contribute to the attempt to exceed the 96 million meals distributed in 2009. More information is available at fmsc.org.