Refrigerators, trucks and shelving: DuPage County awards nearly $1 million to help food pantries

DuPage County Board members Tuesday approved nearly $1 million in funding requests from food pantries to help cover capital needs such as refrigerators, trucks or technology.

The grants, awarded to 16 food pantries, will be funded through the local food pantry infrastructure improvement program, which the county established in 2023. The county will use money from the American Rescue Plan Act to pay for the various improvements.

“These targeted investments will make it easier to get fresh food to the neediest residents in our county quickly, provide important resources to local pantries and strengthen our food distribution network for decades to come,” County board member Greg Schwarze said.

Schwarze, who heads the county board’s human services committee, said the county received requests for a total of seven trucks, some of which will be refrigerated. Other requests included refrigerators, walk-in coolers, freezers, software, computers, shelving and food storage containers.

Though county board members approved the grant awards, which totaled $910,000 of the $1 million budgeted for the program, some board members during Tuesday’s finance committee meeting questioned why only 16 food pantries received grants.

The county has about 49 food pantries, including some run by townships that did not receive any funding.

County board member Sam Tornatore noted that a quick text to Addison and Bloomingdale township supervisors indicated they did not know about the grants.

County officials said they worked with the food pantry staff and reached out multiple times to all of the food pantries to make officials aware of the grant programs. Only the 16 awarded funds applied for the grant.

County officials said they will reach out to food pantries once again and noted that $90,000 remains available for grants. The county also allocated $2.5 million in the 2024 budget to help purchase food for food pantries.

Grants approved on Tuesday ranged from $7,960 to $145,565. The larger grant awards included requests for refrigerated trucks to help with food pickups and deliveries.