How Naperville volunteers plan to make 1 million meals in 2 days

It would take a single person 913 years to eat 1 million meals at the typical three-a-day pace, but a group of Naperville-area volunteers is looking to pack that many meals in only two days.

Volunteers from 25 Naperville-area churches are hungry to meet a major goal in their fifth year of operating a starvation solution event called "Feed the Need!"

The volunteers aim to recruit 5,000 helpers to pack rice, soy, dried vegetables and nutrient powders into meals for distribution by a Minnesota nonprofit called Feed My Starving Children during the two-day event in February.

"We've been chasing this million-meal goal since its inception and we've finally gotten to it," said Bob Huebner, Feed the Need co-founder.

The first Feed the Need! generated 108,000 meals and the totals have multiplied from there, with last year's participants packing 802,864.

Organizers say they're confident volunteers can complete more during five packing shifts Feb. 20 and a dozen at the Residence Hall/Recreation Center at North Central College in Naperville, 30 N. Brainard St.

"It's going to empower everyone to focus on the one point to say, 'Let's make a difference,'" Huebner said about the event. "'Let's make a difference globally through this event to feed the many that are starving.'"

When Les May got involved, he realized everyday people can make a difference against starvation in third-world countries. While some suburban residents lack sufficient food, May said Feed My Starving Children's global approach meets the most dire needs first. Still, organizers are aiming to have a local effect by asking volunteers to bring canned food and nonperishable donations for Loaves & Fishes Community Services.

"You might have people suffering from hunger (locally), but that's not where the need is," May said.

"The need is across the world in Third World countries," where people are starving and dying from their hunger, he said.

Food packed by volunteers for Feed My Starving Children is delivered to roughly 70 countries. Organizers said last year's Feed the Need! meals went to places such as Haiti and the Philippines, where food aid was lacking because of all the donations to Ebola-racked nations such as Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Filling the bellies of children in developing nations helps prepare them to learn and grow, said Dawn DeSart, public relations and media coordinator.

"Education is so important" in poor countries, DeSart said, and so is business development, health care, clean water, infrastructure, safety - all the building blocks of community life. "But unless you can feed people, unless you can get people the nutrition they need ... there is nothing forward, there is nothing else."

Feed the Need! volunteers will be briefed with a 15-minute orientation and outfitted with a hairnet and gloves. DeSart said many volunteer jobs task participants with measuring ingredients, standing to dump the components into a funnel, then bagging and weighing each meal. But for seniors who want to help, there are also sitting roles to label each pack of food.

In a typical two-hour shift, the average volunteer can pack 216 meals, the ingredients of which cost roughly $50. Since organizers need 5,000 volunteers to meet their million-meal mark, Huebner said they need to raise $250,000.

Volunteers and donations are still being accepted, and organizers are reaching out to school and church groups to get more of them involved. To volunteer as an individual, contact Les May at (630) 235-5925 or les@feedtheneedillinois.org. School groups looking to help can contact Dawn DeSart at (312) 804-8688 or dawndesart@gmail.com.

Shifts on Saturday, Feb. 20, run from noon to 2 p.m., 3 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m., while Sunday shifts on Feb. 21 are noon to 2 and 3 to 5 p.m.

For students with service-hour requirements or anyone who wants to make a difference, Huebner said the other benefit of Feed the Need! is it provides the perfect opportunity.

"They feel good and it's an easy thing to do and they all enjoy it. We're really supplying the community a service event that is available to families from 5 to 95 (years old)," Huebner said. "It's a fun, simple and time-efficient way to contribute and feel good about helping somebody else."

And what better thing to feel good about than providing a child the nutrition he or she needs to survive?

"Where else can you go for two hours," May said, "to make such an impact?"