Girl Collects 1,300 Pounds in Donations for Northern Illinois Food Bank

One Channahon girl’s recent efforts will benefit thousands of poverty-stricken residents of Will and Grundy counties. 

Lauren Heafey, a sixth-grader at , organized the Help the Hungry School Food Drive, with a goal of collecting 300 pounds of goods at each of the four schools in Channahon School District 17. 

Lauren not only met her goal, but exceeded it with 120 pounds above and beyond her goal of 1,200 pounds of donated items. 

A total of 1,320 pounds of canned and non- perishable food, as well as baby items, household products and personal care items, were collected during the food drive, which took place from Feb. 28 through March 11. The collected goods were donated to the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

“I was surprised and shocked at the same time when my mom told me the amount of items that were donated,” Lauren said.

NIFB statics say that just eight pounds of food provides six meals for a family of four. 

This is the second year that Lauren has organized a charitable event. Last year, she organized a monetary drive with the proceeds being donated to the people of Haiti, who were struck by a devastating earthquake. Hope for Haiti raised $210 at the schools and an additional $20 from neighbors, for a total of $230.

This year’s collection process was steady during the two weeks, but the last day of the drive, Lauren said students really packed the boxes, especially at Three Rivers School.

“It was an overload,” Lauren said. “One of the teachers bribed her students with candy in order for them to bring in donations.”

There was 360 pounds of donated items just at Three Rivers. 

Pioneer Path School had its collection box more than half full before the event started, Lauren said. Her brother T.J., a fourth grader at Pioneer Path, was advertising the drive before it even started. Junior high students also helped out by making posters and advertising it around Channahon Junior High School, she said.

“There were lots of personal items,” Lauren said, “I didn’t think we were going to get many of those items, but we did.”

Lauren wanted the event to run for three weeks, but Dr. Karin Evans, superintendent of Channahon Schools and her reached an agreement to have it for two weeks.

An email was sent to Evans in the beginning of the year to get approval for the drive. Lauren not only received Evans' approval, but approval of the four district principals. 

Next, she contacted NIFB. Her and her father, Bill, drove to St. Charles to pick up the collection boxes and distributed them to the four schools. 

This past weekend, the Heafey family packed up their car and drove to the NIFB facility in St. Charles to drop off the collection. 

According to statistics on the NIFB website, of the 679,069 people living in Will County, 43,879 live in poverty and 16,306 children live in poverty. NIFB provides food-filled backpacks to over 200 low-income children during the school year, so they have nutritious food over the weekend. More than 1,100 children benefit each week through this program in Northern Illinois.

The website also mentions that Grundy County is one of eight counties served by NIFB that appears on the poverty watch or warning list. This list pinpoints areas of increased poverty and hardship as identified by Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, an agency helping those living in poverty to improve their lifestyle.

“I have a good feeling that its helping local people where I live,” Lauren said.

In addition to her charitable work, Lauren is a triathlete playing for her school’s basketball, volleyball and track teams. She also is an honor roll student. She is training to be a summer camp counselor for Wilmette Park District. Last year, she spent an abundance of her summer there because her mother, Carol oversees the camp programs.

As for next year’s project, Lauren said she has to brainstorm some more ideas. Whatever she comes up with, she wants to make it a success. 

“I want to do something bigger, as in a state-wide project,” Lauren said. “I want to do something that will help even more people.”