Loaves & Fishes bags donation

Each summer, Joanne Mitrenga struggles to fill the shelves at Naperville's Loaves & Fishes Community Food Pantry.

The pantry is a victim of the city's successes and an oft-forgotten charity this time of year without a face-stuffing holiday to rally around.

But workers at ConAgra's Naperville offices on Friday delivered 600 bags of groceries with two weeks worth of lunches for the city's poorer children.

"They not only donated all the food, but packed them all as well," said Mitrenga, the pantry's executive director. "Here is a company that proves they care about the little guy and this shows a large company does care about Naperville."

Local officials from the Omaha-based packaged food giant had been in contact with Mitrenga since reading in the newspaper last year how hard it was for her to keep interest in the food pantry going beyond the traditional winter holidays.

"This is a natural extension for us," said Karl Sears, vice president of marketing. "We had participated in some other programs in the area, but we were looking to do something closer to home."

For years, ConAgra has operated a hunger awareness program called the Feeding Children Better Foundation. Chris Kircher, president of ConAgra Foods Foundation, said it was a perfect fit with Loaves & Fishes needs.

"We do try to address this cause in the communities in which we operate because we believe it's part of being a good corporate neighbor," he said. "And even in a place like Naperville, it just goes to show how widespread the issue of hunger is. It's virtually present in every community."

Most food pantries around the country benefit from federal grants, but Naperville's general affluence keeps Mitrenga's charity from reaping those dollars.

"There are government programs for summertime lunch programs, but we don't qualify," she said. "None of the schools have 50 percent or more concentrations of low-income students."

Roughly 100 ConAgra employees lined up to create makeshift assembly lines in the Naperville office's conference rooms to pack the bags with food items and then pack boxes with four bags Friday morning.

The office workers made short work of the job and finished faster than they expected.

"Look at how fast they are," Sears said. "They work in an office in cubes; they're amazing."

All told, about $12,000 worth of food was packed into the 600 boxes, which amounts to $20 per bag. That's on top of the $5,000 cash donation the company made last month to Loaves & Fishes to help out with July lunches for youngsters. Workers also donated a number of toiletry items.

"This was actually a lot of fun," said Jackie McDevitt, a Harvard student interning with the company this summer. "I think it's really important to work for a company that puts an emphasis on giving back."

To make an individual donation to Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry, visit the Web site at www.loavesandfishespantry.com.