Tone-deaf story about expensive soup

I must call out the Daily Herald for being tone deaf as evidenced by the front page placement of the Drake Oakbrook’s pricey soup story. At a time when DuPage food pantries like ours are challenged to meet the growing need of people that are unable to provide basic nutrition for their families, I found the placement of this news release to be offensive. Contrary to common belief, food pantries do not distribute only donated food to our DuPage County neighbors — we buy it from Northern Illinois Food Bank. Our food cost has doubled in the last year and still when purchased food and donated food is combined that amount is just 8 cents a pound. In February, our pantries provided weekly groceries to over 6,000 visitors at an out of pocket cost of $24,000 — that’s $4 per visit for a week’s worth of groceries. Think about what $1,893 could buy at 8 cents a pound. A lot, and it won’t come with Remy Martin Louis XIII cognac to be sure.

Kate Monteleone, Executive Director

Neighborhood Food Pantries

West Chicago