St. Mary Youth Ministry's Volunteer Work Helps Young Famine Victims

The beat of Queen's We Will Rock You” reverberated through the backroom as Zak Ducharme put packages filled with rice, dehydrated vegetables and chicken stock one on top of another.

Nearby, Youth Ministry Director Elizabeth Wlodzimierski shouted out a different chorus to the song.

“One, two, three. We will, we will, pack … food for kids,” she sang as the dozen or so St. Mary volunteers followed her lead.

St. Mary’s teen volunteers worked quickly and efficiently at different stations set up in the Feed My Starving Children offices in Schaumburg.

Molly Heind, 16, of Huntley, poured chicken stock into a funnel as Nick Sanchez, 18, of Lake in the Hills, held a plastic bag under the funnel. Two others added a few additional ingredients.

On this night, helped save 28 children from dying of starvation in Third World countries.

St. Mary’s parishioners spent this summer volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, which helps provide food for children in 67 countries.

Feed My Starving Children is delivering meals to the Horn of Africa, including Somalia where a famine is raging. The meals are making it through to the people who need it, said Marilyn Maurella, Chicagoland development adviser.

“We have increased our meal allocation there (for Somalia) and they will get an additional 5 million meals that we don’t have the money for,” Maurella said. “But it’s an act of faith.”

Faith Moves Volunteers

Ducharme volunteered for the first time recently because he wanted to help children suffering from famine.

“God spoke to me to come there,” the 16-year-old said.

A video shown to volunteers before the two-hour shift starts helped put a face on the suffering, he said. The video showed children eating dirt sandwiches, he said. He had no idea how dire the situation is for children in Africa, he said.

“It changed me a lot to know the food we made can actually change their lives,” Ducharme said. “It was actually fun making the food and it’s a good feeling when you know where it’s going to end up.”

The knowledge that a few less children will die because of their efforts energies volunteers, Maurella said.

volunteered once in March when a former member ran across information about the charity, Wlodzimierski said. The Youth Ministry then signed up for more shifts over the summer. Wlodzimierski plans to sign up for more shifts later in the year.

“St. Mary’s is very focused on service,” Wlodzimierski said. “We like to help in any area. And serving the poor and healing those who are hungry is something they (the youth ministry) … wanted to do.”

Young Volunteers, Touching Lives

Fifty percent of volunteers are younger than 18 years, Maurella said.

 “Kids want to help and it’s an easy, tangible way for them to help,” Maurella said.

St. Mary’s has brought out four or five groups in a few months to volunteer, she said. Each group gets a certificate of appreciation and learns how many children they helped save by volunteering, she said.

Maurella has had the chance to see how volunteering affects Americans’ lives and gets to see how children are saved.

“I’ve met kids who are living because of this food,” she said. “It just takes a cup a day.”

The MannaPack Rice was developed by Minnesota food scientists to provide children with the maximum in vitamins and nutrients, according to Feed My Starving Children. Each package costs just 24 cents and contains rice, soy nuggets, powdered chicken stock and dehydrated vegetables. Boiling water is added to each package.

“It’s life-changing, it really is,” Maurella said. “For me, the emotional and spiritual nourishment that is happening here is equal to seeing the physical nourishment that is happening on the other end.”

“You see lives changed on both sides,” she said.