Wauconda residents donate pork, beef to pantry

There are several key differences between Santa Claus and Vickie Laureys.

There's no red and white getup for the Wauconda salon owner, who's more appropriately wearing a black stylist's smock.

The boiling Wauconda afternoon approaches almost the exact opposite of the weather at Mr. Claus' polar confines.

And instead of dragging a sack full of toys into the Wauconda Food Pantry, Laureys lugs in more than 1,000 pounds of pork and beef from her truck.

"It's just, like, incredible," Laureys says, marveling at the meat donated by a passel of Wauconda residents. And it's all from pigs and steer bought at auction at the Lake County Fair. "I didn't realize five pigs could make that much (meat)."

Grateful food pantry officials said the donation comes at the perfect time, when people may not be thinking about the hungry.

"A lot of people think of it at holiday time," said volunteer Zelma Dunn, who's worked at the pantry for 25 years. "Now it's low. In the summer, it always is."

So to offset the seasonal drop-off in donations, Berger Excavating bought four pigs and Wauconda Township Assessor Pat Oaks and Cindy Kellog chipped in for a fifth.

A group including the Wauconda Rotary, Lion's Club, chamber of commerce, Acres Group landscaping, Vickie's Personal Touch Salon and Laureys' Friday morning business club combined to pay for processing fees, which can get as pricey as $900.

Laureys, who worked out a smaller one-pig donation after the 2006 fair, said her goal this year was to organize a way to cover the pork's processing fees.

"Let's get the food pantry to not have to pay for that," she remembers thinking.

At the last minute, Laureys also decided to donate about 75 pounds of ground beef from a steer she bought for her personal use.

"We can't even fit this in our freezer," she said.

Food pantry officials say the gift comes as more and more are seeking help.

"(The need) increases no matter what season it is," said food pantry President Yolanda Segovia, who estimates they see about five to six new people a week requesting help. "The economy is so bad, we're getting it from all sides."

As Laureys, her son, Austyn, salon worker Haley White and food pantry workers unload the 963 pounds of pork, empty refrigerators fill to the brim with meat most needy people can't get.

"I usually don't buy pork unless it's on special," Dunn said.

And reading off the list of donated items might make you sound a bit like Bubba from "Forest Gump": There's pork shoulder, pork roast, pork sausage, lard, pork chops and more.

As the third freezer starts to fill, volunteer Shirley Mikols throws her hands up and sighs with joy.

"We're in hog heaven," she says.