State legislators to race to fill food pantry shelves

Submitted by Kane County Farm Bureau

State Sen. Christine Johnson and state Rep. Bob Pritchard will compete in a nonperishable grocery Shopping Spree to benefit local food pantries on Monday, Feb. 20, to mark National Food Check-Out Week. The contest will be held at 10:30 a.m. at the Batavia Jewel-Osco, 119 Randall Road.

Johnson will shop for the Burlington-Hampshire Food Pantry and Pritchard will shop for Between Friends Food Pantry in Sugar Grove. They will be cheered on by food pantry representatives and Farm Bureau volunteers. The Batavia High School cheerleaders and band also have been invited.

Food Check-Out Week, Feb. 19-25, is devoted to helping teach Americans how to stretch their grocery dollars with healthy, nutritious food. Because U.S. farmers are the most productive and efficient food producers in the world, food is a real bargain in the U.S. when compared to the rest of the world. Food Check-Out Week is marked each year by the Kane County Farm Bureau with a Shopping Spree to benefit local food pantries.

The public is invited to come out and cheer on these public officials as they race for hunger awareness. They are encouraged to bring donations of nonperishable food items, to be collected on-site throughout the day for the Northern Illinois Food Bank, to benefit food pantries throughout Kane County.

Since its inception in 2001, the Farm Bureau sponsored Shopping Sprees have donated nearly $20,000 in groceries to local food pantries. Past participants include many state senators and state representatives, local mayors and other public officials in Kane County. The Shopping Spree compliments its Harvest for ALL program by which farmers and non-farmers contributed more than $60,000 to local food pantries through proceeds from crops, cash, and in-kind donations since its inception in April 2009.