Top Box Foods' expansion in Lake County aims to make quality foods affordable for all

For Sheila Berner Kennedy and her husband, Chris, the idea for their nonprofit, Top Box Foods, formed like a synapse. One of the couple's experiences formed a bridge to another, eventually creating a circuit. In this case, the result was an idea that's recently expanded into Lake County — increasing access to affordable, high-quality produce in areas considered to be food deserts.

The Kennedys, longtime Kenilworth residents, had spent decades watching close family members on both sides work actively for social justice. Sheila Kennedy's mother, Sheila Reynolds Berner, worked as a social worker for more than 25 years at the Howard Area Community Center in Chicago, which now features an early childhood center that bears her name. Chris Kennedy's father, the late Robert F. Kennedy, left a legacy as a champion of the poor and an advocate of civil rights. His brother, Joe, in the 1970s formed Citizens Energy — a nonprofit that provides discounted heat to low-income families.

Chris Kennedy is a former president of the Merchandise Mart and University of Illinois board of trustees, who, political operatives say is mulling a Democratic bid for governor. He served on the board of the Greater Chicago Food Depository and was teaching a social justice course at Dominican University in River Forest when news broke that the founders of Angel Food Ministries were facing federal charges of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. They were later convicted. The company, at the time, was distributing groceries to roughly 500,000 needy families across the country.

“Both of us always thought about food access issues, and wanted to start to put some of our thoughts into practice,” Sheila Kennedy said.

Angel Food Ministries' 2011 shutdown, she said, “left a void, and we wanted to fill that void.”

The Kennedys in May 2012 formed Top Box Foods, a nonprofit that partners with churches and community centers in poor communities that serve as delivery and pickup sites for family-sized boxes of fresh produce, fish and meat sold for 40 percent less than grocery store prices.

For $15, customers can get a large box of high-quality fresh produce, the same at upscale grocery stores such as Whole Foods. Boxes of “proteins” — chicken, steak and fish — range from $9 to $28, depending on size. Customers pay by cash, check or Link card upon pickup.

Kennedy says overhead costs are kept low because of Top Box's network of volunteers, and sourcing with partners, like Fortune Fish, which go above and beyond their business agreement by donating trucking and drivers to Top Box for deliveries.

“They really liked the work we do, so they give us trucking and drivers for free,” she said. “Anytime we can save on anything we pass along to the customers.”

It's not, Kennedy makes clear, a handout — just an efficient way to increase access to nutrition for those of all income levels.

Diane White and her husband Lawrence are retired Zion residents living on a tight budget because of some medical issues. The Whites have been Top Box customers for the past six months, after learning about the service from their daughter-in-law. Typically, each month, White says they purchase both a box of produce, as well as chicken or pork.

“The food has been fresh every time; it's worth the money we pay. In fact, it saves us money,” White says. Top Box exclusively circulated in Chicago until 2014, when the Northern Illinois Food Bank revealed gaps in access to nutrition in poor areas of Lake County.

The food bank helped Top Box to select areas to operate in and helped connect the nonprofit with community leaders — doctors, pastors and local elected officials — to get the word out to various communities. Top Box's Lake County business model, Kennedy explains, works somewhat like an “ice cream truck” — where customers show up and order items on the spot at sites in Zion, Waukegan, Round Lake and North Chicago as word-of-mouth about the business spreads. In Chicago, customers pre-order and then pick up during a delivery window.

“It's a balancing act because we want to make sure there's something for everyone that shows up but if we have fresh produce, we don't want it to go to waste. We do our best to get the numbers right,” she said.

Erie HealthReach Waukegan Health Center is one of the sites, where Top Box Customers stopped by to select boxes of groceries on a recent Thursday afternoon.

The clinic's medical director, Dr. Frances Baxley, calls a healthy diet and lifestyle “the most important way of managing chronic illness and the epidemics we're facing in terms of obesity and diabetes.”

While Baxley says Top Box is doing important work to “break down barriers of cost and distance,” she noted that some of the working poor residents of Lake County still face “barriers of space to store the food and the time to prepare it.”

For more information about placing orders or to volunteer, visit www.topbox.com.