Grants bolster Northern Illinois Food Bank's transportation department

Thanks to support from the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley and the Hansen-Furnas Foundation, Northern Illinois Food Bank has added a new sprinter van to its fleet. The van will help efficiently deliver food to hungry neighbors in the Food Bank's 13-county service area.

The van will be primarily used to deliver nutritious food to youth programs year-round. The vehicle will be particularly useful during the summer months when making daily deliveries to Summer Meal Program sites. During the school year, the van will be used to deliver cold suppers and snacks to after-school programs for children at risk of hunger.

The addition of the van contributes to the food bank's transportation strategy of upgrading its fleet over the next five years.

"We are very grateful for these generous gifts from the Community Foundation of Fox River Valley and the Hansen-Furnas Foundation," said Julie Yurko, Northern Illinois Food Bank president and CEO. "This van will help transport food to 8,000 children who depend on our services every day."

The Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley is a nonprofit, philanthropic organization that administers individual, charitable funds from which grants and scholarships are distributed to benefit the citizens of the Greater Aurora Area, the Tri-Cities and Kendall County. For more information on the Community Foundation, visit www.communityfoundationfrv.org.

Northern Illinois Food Bank provided about 2 million meals to children through its Child Nutrition Program last year. In addition to the Child Nutrition Program, Northern Illinois Food Bank works with 800 food pantries and feeding programs across 13 counties to provide nutritious food to more than 71,000 hungry neighbors each week. The Food Bank relies on donations to support its mission of solving hunger in northern Illinois, and turns every $1 donation into $8 of groceries for hungry neighbors. To learn more, visit www.SolveHungerToday.org.