www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/schools/1559809,6_5_NA06_FOODDRIVE_S1.article
Aurora and Naperville high schools fight hunger
May 6, 2009
By Jane Donahue For The Sun
When a group of Naperville
and Aurora, [and possibly]Bolingbrook and Plainfield teens said they were planning a food fight, they weren't kidding. Students printed and sold T-shirts with the "Food Fight" logo, and the idea quickly spread to all four Naperville district
[correction- 2 Naperville; 2 Indian Prairie] high schools. Even more surprising, the students were greeted with support from school officials.
Michele Brown, assistant principal at Waubonsie, said the school was happy to support the initiative.
To help
If your school, church or organization is interested in hosting a Feeding Children mobile packaging event, visit
www.feedingchildrenstewart.org or call 320-833-5328 for more details.
"Our school talks about character education. These students are examples of character action," Brown said.
But this was no ordinary food fight.
Teenagers from Naperville Central, Naperville North, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley set cross-town rivalry aside to take part in Meals for Many, a new movement to provide food for starving children throughout the world.
"They (Katie Cluver and Jacob Ives) came in with a full proposal of their mission statement, goals and how they would support it," Brown said. "It was completely a student-generated idea."
The group spent the past two months raising funds to cover the costs of Feeding Children International's mobile unit, including the ingredients to create 100,000 meals.
"I really enjoyed working with all the other high school students," said student coordinator Katie Cluver, a senior from Waubonsie. "I think it really brought the Naperville school district students together for a great cause."
The mobile packaging unit, a literal meals-on-wheels, rolled into town this week to help the teens reach their goal. John Neisen, chairperson of Feeding Children International of Stewart, said he makes about 80 trips a year, setting up food assembly lines at schools, churches and community groups.
"The real miracle here has two parts," Neisen said. "The first is that kids that normally wouldn't get to eat are given food. The other part is that kids in the U.S. get to do something really wonderful -- they raise the money and then package the food. At the end of the day, they don't wonder where the money will be spent -- they have seen it. It's very real," Neisen said.
The mobile unit was started in 2003 as a way to enhance Feeding Children's stationary operations. Since then, more than 20 million meals have been made throughout the U.S.
More than 1,000 students at North and Waubonsie spent Tuesday assembling fortified meal packets to be distributed in Zambia. Each dehydrated package contains six, one-cup servings for a child. Neisen said the food packet can reverse the starvation process and help restore a child's health.
Sorry had to EDIT for the SUN since they are a joke at getting the facts straight in that article.