Food bank seeks to expand to meet increasing need
The number of impoverished and hungry families is growing in the collar counties, and you can take that to the Northern Illinois Food Bank.
An increasing need to feed the hungry is the primary reason the not-for-profit is eyeing a $17 million expansion in Geneva.
The food bank serves the 13 counties that surround Cook County, including Lake, McHenry, Kane and DuPage.
Food bank leaders originally wanted to expand at the facility in St. Charles. To that end, the food bank requested a $140,000 pass-through grant from the county's share of federal Community Development Block Grant funds to build a new freezer. But two years ago, torrential rains flooded the eastern side of the St. Charles facility, giving food bank staff cause for concern as they planned to expand.
Taking a second look at it, food bank staff decided it was time to update the 40-year-old facility to meet expanding needs. Now the food bank wants the county to fulfill its original $140,000 request, but designate the grant as money for land acquisition at the Geneva Business Park. A subcommittee of the Kane County Board will vote on that request today.
"If we're going to put this much money into our facility, we don't want to just put a Band-Aid on it," said Jarrod Daab, associate director of development for the food bank. "We're growing in leaps and bounds."
Daab said there is a need not for a larger facility, but a taller one. The current warehouse in St. Charles provides 147,000 square feet of space, but has low ceilings that cut down on the ability to store food. The new facility would have about 118,000 square feet, but be much taller, allowing the food bank to double the amount of food it can distribute and house.
Right now, both dry storage and freezer storage space are desperately needed at the food bank. They are running refrigerated trailers to house some of the food. Those trailers are run on high-priced diesel fuel.
Food bank staffers estimate a 45-percent increase in the number of impoverished people who need help with food in the area since 2000. More than 275,000 people in the food bank's coverage area may now need assistance at some point.
"We anticipate the number to keep growing," Daab said. "In terms of the immediate need, our food pantries are seeing about a 20-percent increase in the amount of people going into them."
Last year, the food bank distributed about 22 million pounds of food. Once in the new, expanded facility, food bank staffers hope to distribute as much as 40 million pounds of food in the first five years it's open. Eventually, they believe they may be able to distribute as much as 80 million pounds of food in a year.
There are plenty of homes for that food. The food bank serves more than 300 food pantries and partner sites in Lake, Kane, McHenry and DuPage Counties alone.
"We're running out of space, but not hungry people," Daab said.
It will take about two years to raise the necessary funds for the expansion and move.