Northern Illinois Food Bank set to expand in Geneva

The headquarters of the nation's top food bank will leave St. Charles next year in favor of a larger location in Geneva.

The Northern Illinois Food Bank, named by the Feeding America Network as the 2010 Member Food Bank of the year, is moving to a planned $13 million new facility at Dearborn Court and Averil Road that will help it keep up with its growing needs.

The move comes after the food bank saw exponential growth, fueled by a sluggish economy, in the number of hungry suburbanites it served in the past year. The food bank served 37,400 people from 13 regional counties in 2006. This year, the food bank is serving about 61,600 people each week.

It's a growing problem the suburbs are just now coming to terms with, said Jarrod Daab, the food bank's associate director of development.

"People are more aware of people being hungry," Daab said. "When I first started at the food bank four years ago, nobody knew what a food bank was. People didn't really think hunger existed in their communities, especially out in the suburbs here.

"What people are seeing over the last 18 to 24 months is their neighbors are losing jobs, their family members are losing jobs and it's hitting home a lot more," he added. "There are people struggling out there, and it's happening in their backyard."

Part of the realization stems from the changing face of hunger. The food bank is seeing clients it's never before served.

"You're seeing a lot more middle-class families, people that have never needed a food pantry," Daab said.

The good news is, as the hunger has intensified, suburbanites have stepped up their volunteerism and food donations.

"People may be giving less on average per person, but more people are giving," Daab said.

But that's yet another reason the food bank needs a larger home in which to operate. More food on hand equals less space to store it. Space is so tight right now that the food bank is running refrigerated diesel trucks 24 hours a day at times just to keep meat and other donated food from spoiling before it reaches hungry families.

It's also spending up to $6,000 month to rent off-site storage space.

"It's just inefficient and wasteful," Daab said. "That's the last thing that we want to do. We want to take people's money, the donations that are coming to us, and use that for distribution and not for storing it off site. This new facility will allow us to do that."

The new facility will have roughly the same footprint as the St. Charles warehouse where the bank now operates, but a taller roof that allows it to store twice as much food. The food bank purchased the Geneva site for $2.3 million and has secured about $3 million in donations to pay for the new building. Tax-free municipal bonds made available by Geneva will finance the rest of the construction.

The sale of the St. Charles facility, which already has a buyer, will either help pay off the bonds or reduce the amount the food bank must borrow. Officials were not yet releasing the name of the site's new owner.

The food bank will remain at the St. Charles facility until next year. Construction will begin on the Geneva facility by August at the latest.