More in suburbs need food, more donations come

The number of people needing food can be sobering.

The number of people willing to donate and help can be uplifting.

Such is the numbers game when it comes to feeding the hungry in northern Illinois, especially during the holidays.

“On average, the partner agencies we work with have seen a 35 percent increase over the past few years in clients, and some have seen 100 percent increase,” said Jarrod Daab, the senior development officer for the Northern Illinois Food Bank, which distributes food to 665 agencies in 13 counties. “It really coincides with the unemployment numbers in the counties.”

Some of the sobering numbers:

&bul; The food bank's network serves 61,600 people every week at this time of year. And most weeks, that number represents many new or different clients. Four years ago, the number of clients per week was 37,400.

&bul; It provides food for more than 500,000 people each year, which means one of every eight people in the 13-county region needs food assistance.

&bul; The most populated areas of DuPage, Lake and Kane counties have the most need and result in the busiest food pantries, according to Daab, who cited 53,000 people in poverty in both DuPage and Lake counties, and 45,000 in Kane County.

Now, the more uplifting numbers:

&bul; With increased demand, there has been an increase in monetary and food donations as the Northern Illinois Food Bank and its partners continue to weather the storm of the economy. Three years ago, the food bank distributed 22 million pounds of food. This year food bank employees and volunteers will be handling 40 million pounds.

&bul; The food bank has 70 employees in its network the main distribution center in St. Charles, and locations in Rockford and Park City (in Lake County) and more than 10,000 volunteers.

“With that kind of increase in demand, you need a work force to handle it,” Daab said.

The food bank provides food for pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and “anyone who can get food out to those who need it,” Daab said.

Melissa Travis is the director of food services for People's Resource Center, the food bank's DuPage County partner and one of the busiest operations with pantries in Wheaton and Westmont.

“We're serving 3,500 families in December,” Travis said of the increased need during the holiday season. “The number of clients has seen double-digit growth each year since 2007.”

Travis said she has about 1,000 active volunteers who provide assistance at the pantries.

“Those in need come to the pantries and pick out what they need, but we do have to limit quantities to make sure there is enough for everyone,” Travis said.

“The items we are in need of can change weekly,” Travis said. “Right now, we're looking for more cereal, but next week it could be soup. Mostly, we can use more personal care items like soap, shampoo, diapers and deodorant because families always need those things and they are expensive items that they struggle to get.”

The Holy Family Food Pantry in Waukegan serves needy families in Lake County, and director Barb Karacic said her pantry is seeing 250 families a week, with about 30 to 40 families being new clients.

“That number is not going down,” Karacic said. “People are coming from very far away to get a bag of food.”

Karacic estimates the pantry, open only six hours a week, is serving about 3,600 different families during the holiday season.

Karacic is usually on the hunt for items that the food bank can't always make available sugar, coffee and flour.

“This economy has been bad a lot longer than any of us anticipated,” Karacic said. “And I am seeing some of our donors starting to struggle as well, so it gets more difficult to fill (food needs) for the numbers we deal with.”

Fran Phalan has seen her client list grow to about 500 families a week at the Holy Angels Food Pantry in Aurora, which differs from some pantries in that clients cannot go to the pantry and choose the items they need.

“What we have is what we can give,” Phalan said. “We don't have the space to be a client-choice pantry, so we make up the bags and hand them out. People get a good amount of food when they come, but it's not customized because we don't know what they already have in their kitchen.”

Phalan said the pantry, which has been in operation since 1972, was fortunate to become a partner with the Northern Illinois Food Bank because it allows the pantry to offer much more.

The food bank has benefited from major contributions from Jewel-Osco, Dominick's, Bank of America and others in the past, but Daab said the food bank can't rely each year on major donations.

“Jewel has been a very committed contributor to us, and that money went out to our agencies and it's been a very good program for our network, but you don't want to rely on big grants coming every year,” Daab said. “It's great when the contributions continue, but year after year we have to keep trying to find donors.”

When considering that the food bank's staggering client numbers don't even include Chicago and Cook County, which is serviced by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the economy's effect on families in need is daunting.

Daab said the latest four-year National Hunger Study indicated there would be an increase in need for serving hungry families, but “it's hitting skyrocketing levels.”

“The biggest thing people can do to help is a monetary donation because we are able distribute about eight pounds of food for every dollar,” Daab said. “Our agencies acquire so much food at such good prices.

“We're looking for nutritious items full of protein tuna, peanut butter, pasta sauce because we're not just looking to put calories out there, we want quality calories.

“We're always looking for people to get involved by donating money, time or food,” Daab said. “Hunger is a 365-day-a-year challenge.”