Wheaton chamber stuffs trucks with food for residents in need

In honor of Make a Difference Day, members of the Wheaton Chamber of Commerce hoped to do just that this year for needy families in DuPage County.

So earlier this month, the chamber's community relations committee launched the "Stuff a Truck with Food" campaign. Committee members distributed about 40 barrels to chamber businesses and other locations and invited the community to place food donations inside.

On Saturday, Make a Difference Day, the chamber collected those donations. The result: two pickup trucks filled with food that will be placed on the shelves of the People's Resource Center's food pantry in Wheaton.

"We are thrilled with what we've collected," said committee member Laurie Swanson Oberhelman. "There's a real need for this in DuPage County, and people really responded. It's been a great program."

The barrels were brought to the former Hubble Middle School property at Main Street and Roosevelt Road, where the food was then loaded into the two trucks. Chamber members drove the trucks to the site Saturday morning in a procession that included a police escort.

Melissa Travis, director of food services at the People's Resource Center, said demand for services is up 32 percent over this same time last year. For an agency that's been around since 1975, that's a huge jump, she said.

"That's a clear indication of what this economy is doing to people," she said. "We're so thankful the chamber decided to do this."

The center's food pantry serves about 2,800 families a month, Travis said.

This was the first year for the Stuff a Truck campaign, but Swanson Oberhelman said she'd like to see it become an annual event.

"The response was so good this year, and I believe it would only get better if we did it again," she said.