Naperville mayor's shopping spree earns $550 in food for charity

Naperville Mayor George Pradel was looking quite serious Thursday morning as he paced the aisles of the Jewel-Osco store at 127 E. Ogden Ave.

He was planning his strategy.

Starting at 9 a.m., Pradel would have three minutes to throw as many frozen food items as possible into as many shopping carts as he could fill.

The food then would be donated to a charity of Pradel's choosing -- in this case Naperville's Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry at 552 W. Fifth Ave.

"Organizations like Loaves & Fishes help us create our quality of life here in Naperville," Pradel said. "This is really going to add to their supply."

The contest was initiated by the Midwest Frozen & Refrigerated Food Association as part of National Frozen Food Month.

The association does charity contests every March to raise awareness about the ease and value of their products.

This year, the group asked officials at the Jewel-Osco in north Naperville to play host to the event and pick a contestant.

Pradel seemed the obvious choice.

"This is the mayor's Naperville store," store director Tim Cesario said. "We want to keep the mayor happy."

As Pradel paced the frozen food section, he stretched his legs and practiced tossing food into the cart, manned by Skip Friz, president of the Midwest Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association.

When the clock started, the mayor burst into action, filling his first cart with boxes of pizza.

There were calls for a new cart as he moved on to the frozen dinners section.

Onlookers yelled encouragement as Pradel made his way through corn dogs, coconut layer cakes, fish sticks and frozen vegetables.

As the clock ran out, the mayor grabbed two more cartons of ice cream and took inventory.

"My hands are cold," he said, surveying the four carts he had filled with frozen food. "I got more than I thought I was going to get."

He wound up collecting a total of $549.36 in groceries, all of which Jewel-Osco donated to the pantry.

"We really appreciate the mayor and his efforts to bring the issue of food to the forefront," said Tom Kallay, president of the Loaves & Fishes board. "I think in Naperville we forget that there are hungry people."

"There are some really needy families in Naperville," Pradel said. "This thing today really benefits the whole city… Everyone in the city is eligible to receive this food."

For more information on Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry, visit loavesandfishespantry.com.