Food banks in Illinois will start receiving truckloads of supplies next month under funding provided by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, Sen. Dick Durbin said Monday during a visit to a Catholic Charities food bank in Des Plaines.

The act includes an additional $935 million in food stamp benefits for Illinois families. An average household of four people receiving food stamps will see an increase of $80 per month in benefits starting this month.

The act also provides more than $3 million for schools in Illinois to buy equipment to prepare meals for school lunch and breakfast programs; $6.3 million for soup kitchens and food pantries to purchase and distribute food through the Emergency Food Assistance Program; $3.7 million for senior meal programs; and $4.1 million for nonprofit and faith-based organizations to provide emergency food and shelter to meet the immediate needs of struggling individuals.

The act provides unprecedented levels of assistance for people to cope with hard economic times, Durbin said in a news release.

"In Illinois last year, 440,000 households either struggled to put food on the table, skipped meals to make sure their groceries lasted through the week, or went hungry," Durbin said. "That's nearly one out of every 10 households."