Northern Illinois Food Bank looks to community for help

The Northern Illinois Food Bank charity is turning to business and community leaders throughout its service area to help it raise money for a new facility.

The first of several county-specific committees, the Kane County panel, was announced last week. On Monday, the food bank officials expect to know who will lead a DuPage County committee; a Lake committee will be organized in November. It also hopes to have a Will County committee.

The goal is for the committees to raise $1 million by the end of 2010 toward the construction of a $12.5 million food distribution and community nutrition center in Geneva. The Kane County committee has a goal of $300,000.

"The message is kind of to be a conduit to the (local) community," said Sue Ericson, development director. "We're hoping the people they might approach and make introductions for us might also get involved."

The food bank is headquartered in St. Charles, with branches in Park City, Rockford and Joliet. It distributes food to charity pantries, soup kitchens and other agencies in 13 counties in northern Illinois.

The new facility will have more dock, refrigeration and freezer space, which will allow it to get more protein products, such as frozen meat, and perishable produce. The food bank now uses offsite cold storage.

"We've literally just run out of space," Ericson said.

The community nutrition center will educate agencies and clients about nutrition and maximizing spending on food.

The Kane County committee consists of seven business people, a community volunteer leader and Kane County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay.

Those serving are Andrew Faville, president and CEO of Falex Corp.; Paul Lencioni, human resources and training manager for Eby-Brown Co. LLC; Jim Oberweis, chairman of Oberweis Dairy Inc.; Don Pilmer, vice president, Old Second National Bank; Dan Sergi, president of Wine Sergi and Co. LLC; Brad Urhausen of the Copia Insurance Group; Ron Onesti, president of Onesti Entertainment Corp.; and Katie Hepp.

Ericson said the bank expects to send out 33 million pounds of food this year, about 22 percent more than last year.

The land is bought and paid for, and $1.7 million has been collected for the building. The food bank would like to break ground by May 1, but board members don't want to do so until they have at least $7 million raised.

For details, visit northernilfoodban.org, or call (630) 443-6910 to arrange a visit.

Help: Bank expects to send out 22 percent more food than last year