Loaves & Fishes director joins DuPage Community Foundation

For seven years, Joanne Mitrenga has focused on helping people in need through Naperville's Loaves & Fishes food pantry.

During that time, donations to the pantry have increased 450 percent, she says.

She's also helped start numerous projects, including summer lunch and breakfast assistance programs as well as transportation and gas card efforts.

Now Mitrenga is stepping down with an eye toward helping her own family, too.

The 52-year-old single-mom is leaving the Naperville pantry to begin a new career as director of development for the DuPage Community Foundation in Wheaton.

With the move, she said she hopes to be in a better position to pay college costs for her two teenagers and to plan for her retirement as well.

"It really is an economic decision," Mitrenga said Monday.

Her last day at the Naperville pantry will be Friday, but she said she'll hold everyone she's crossed paths with close to her heart.

"You really get to care about the clients, the people and the mission," she said. "It's just like giving up a part of yourself."

Tom Kallay, president of the Loaves & Fishes board, said he admires Mitrenga's tenacity to keep charging ahead and doing what needs to be done.

"It's not easy to do what Joanne has done for these many years," Kallay said. "It's frustrating. It's hard.

"She has an absolute passion for her clients and their well-being, and the well-being of the pantry."

Mitrenga deflects much of the praise for her accomplishments.

"I did nothing more than just let people come in and start up the programs," she said.

She says she has deep ties to the pantry and likens leaving to chopping off an appendage.

Still, she's excited about her new career with the DuPage Community Foundation, where money earned from investments is used to make grants to organizations in perpetuity, she said. The foundation has given grants to all kinds of agencies, including Loaves & Fishes.

"That money is invested and those earnings continue to help people over and over again," she said. "It's a gift that keeps on giving."

Mitrenga considers her new job a perfect match.

"In terms of the foundation and thinking of next steps, I fit exactly right in," Mitrenga said. "I'm very committed to their cause and to the way they do their business."

That doesn't make it any easier to leave the pantry, though.

"I just really have enjoyed working with everybody, and it's been a very rewarding seven years," Mitrenga said. "I do hope that I will continue to be in touch with folks."