Keeping the shelves stocked
A can of diced tomatoes here, a frozen turkey there.
Schools, churches, unions, stores, bars, business offices, neighborhoods and more ramp up collections of food for charity pantries around the holidays.
In Geneva, teachers collected food in their classrooms and donated it to pantries at two churches Nov. 14.
Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts at Freeman Elementary School in Aurora worked with the West Aurora High School Student Ambassadors, and went door-to-door last week to collect items.
Morningstar Church in Huntley wanted to make sure people could make their own Thanksgiving dinner, and so distributed baskets of ingredients, including frozen turkeys and pies.
Money, please
And while pantries love any donation, there's a way to get more food into more mouths: Give money instead.
It might not generate the warm, fuzzy feelings of placing a jar of peanut butter in a cardboard box at your office, but each dollar donated to the Northern Illinois Food Bank can buy about eight pounds of food. Food banks like NIFB and the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which serves suburban Cook County, get discounts because they buy in bulk from manufacturers and from the federal government.
NIFB can get spaghetti sauce for 35 cents per 15-ounce jar, tuna for 61 cents a 6-ounce can, canned beef stew for $1.11 a can (compared to $2.25 on sale at Meijer last week.)
Donated food from drives, while welcome, has to be sorted, cleaned, checked and packed, which requires labor - volunteer or paid. Money is also needed to pay for trucks and fuel to pick up food, and to deliver it to the hundreds of pantries, soup kitchens and day care programs they serve.
And through Dec. 31, Community Memorial Foundation is offering a challenge grant, matching donations of up to $1,000 to the NIFB.
Both food banks also offer virtual food drives, where donors can place most-needed items such as apples, oatmeal, peanut butter and more into an online shopping basket, then pay via credit card. They offer help in setting up such drives for a group or workplace. Besides the benefits of monetary donations, they note that it relieves donors of the hassle of finding space to put boxes and barrels for food collection, and of having to arrange to transport it to a pantry or schedule a pickup.
Thanks, either way
Whether you choose to give a bag of groceries, or write a check, there are dozens of agencies that will appreciate your help. We've listed a few:
Food banks
Greater Chicago Food Depository
4100 W. Ann Lurie Place
Chicago, IL 60632
Call: (773) 247-3663
Web: chicagosfoodbank.org
Northern Illinois Food Bank
600 Industrial Drive
St. Charles, IL 60174
Call: (630) 443-6910
Satellite locations in Park City, Rockford and Joliet
Charity pantries
Project Hope
320 E. Franklin St.
Barrington, IL 60010
(847) 381-5721
The Chapel of Lake County
20005 Route 176
Mundelein, IL 60060
(847) 201-2777
Willow Creek Center
2080 Stonington Ave.
Hoffman Estates, IL 60169
(847) 882-3663
Algonquin/Lake in the Hills Food Pantry
600 E. Oak St.
Algonquin, IL 60102
(847) 854-1904
Faith Community Church
10547 Faiths Way
Huntley, IL 60142
(224) 569-6501, ext. 3
FISH
150 S. Kennedy Drive
Carpentersville, IL 60110
(847) 428-4357
Aurora Interfaith Food Pantry
659 S. River St.
Aurora, IL 60506
(630) 897-2127
Salvation Army Tri-City Corps
1710 S. Seventh Ave.
St. Charles, IL 60174
(630) 377-2769
Loaves and Fishes Community Pantry
556 W. Fifth Ave.
Naperville, IL 60563
(630) 355-3663
Lombard-Villa Park Pantry
155 S. Main St.
Lombard, IL 60148
(630) 627-2508