Inside a massive warehouse in Schaumburg, charity group Feed My Starving Children and an army of volunteers produce, pack and prepare to ship life-saving humanitarian aid.
While the Christian nonprofit does not receive any government funding, it partners with organizations around the world to distribute meals to the neediest children, and with the freeze in federal U.S. aid, those partner organizations are now asking for more.
"Many of our partners rely heavily on this funding, so they are seeing significant impact with this freeze," said Julie Smith with Feed My Starving Children. "They are very trusted humanitarian mission organizations."
In response to the federal freeze, Feed My Starving Children has received requests from partner organizations for some 3 million meals already.
“We are trying the fill the gaps for these partners who are asking for more meals," Smith said, "but we can only provide the meals we can fund."
Aside from the freeze, the group says it was anticipating a rise in global hunger this year.
"We have been anticipating a 10 percent increase in global hunger in 2025 before the freeze happened. Experts are saying that will go up significantly more."
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Feed My Starving Children is looking for people to give their time by volunteering or making a monetary donation as it tries to further its mission of turning hunger into hope.
Last year, Feed My Starving Children shipped more than 375 million meals to 63 partners in 57 countries.
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"When you look at what is happening in the world, it is so easy to feel paralyzed, but the truth is there is something you can do about it."
