Libertyville Board Grants Permit for Meal-Packing Facility

Libertyville trustees voted unanimously Aug. 14 to issue a special use permit to Feed My Starving Children, a dry meal packing organization that .

The Minnesota-based, Christian nonprofit is preparing to open an 18,000-square-foot meal-packing facility. The Libertyville facility will likely bring in more than 180,000 volunteers per year.

"We're very optimistic and hopeful for the amount of food we can pack in this packing site," said Pat Swanke, director of operations for Feed My Starving Children.

She added that at full capacity, volunteers will be able to pack 40 million meals at the Libertyville site.

This will be the third Feed My Starving Children site in the Chicago area, the other two being in Schaumburg and Aurora.

The basic meal that volunteers will pack is called the MannaPack Rice. Designed by food scientists at Cargill and General Mills, the product consists of rice, extruded soy nuggets, dehydrated vegetables, and a blend of 20 vitamins and minerals.

"It's the perfect food for a malnourished child," Mark Crea, executive director and chief executive officer of Feed My Starving Children, has said of the food. The meals are easily cooked in water.

Swanke said the organization's leaders hope to open the Libertyville site the first week of November.

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