All on board: Bensenville rallies behind food pantry after holiday train schedule change

A holiday train stop in Bensenville came with all the bells and whistles: lights, music and a show of support for a community food pantry.

Canadian Pacific would donate funds, and people attending the festivities would drop off items to help stock the Bensenville-Wood Dale Food Pantry.

This year, however, the village learned the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Holiday Train would not visit Bensenville on a national tour.

“So I immediately went into the mode of, ‘Hey, listen, we'll raise that money.’ We have a strong Bensenville community. We are ‘Bensenville Strong,’” Village President Frank DeSimone said.

In the spirit of that mantra, the village worked to keep the tradition of helping the pantry right on track. As a result of fundraising efforts, the village will present a check for the pantry at its Christmas tree lighting celebration on Sunday. The unofficial total so far is $17,662, DeSimone said Friday.

“I want to just tell everybody how proud I am of the community, that I know that they will step up at any time we need it,” he said.

Boxes also were set up at village hall, the police station and around town to collect nonperishable items. DeSimone appeared in a social media campaign encouraging people to rally behind the pantry. Monetary donations can be made through the Bensenville Community Foundation and specifically designated for the pantry.

“We’re extremely thankful to the village president and the village board and their staff for keeping us in their hearts and minds,” said Rick Kambic, president of the food pantry’s board of directors.

Even without the stop this year, CPKC is making a donation to the Bensenville-Wood Dale Food Pantry, a spokesperson said Friday.

So far in 2024, the volunteer-based food pantry has served 5,521 individuals at least one time. In total, including individuals who visited multiple times, the food pantry served 28,608, according to Kambic. Some 37% of households are new and did not use the pantry last year.

“We have plenty of people who have come because they're in between jobs, and then once they got their job … they ended up volunteering with us,” Kambic said. “So no shame, no questions asked. We're here to help, whether it's one week, two weeks, two months — we care.”

Housed in a church, the pantry has been looking at the possibility of a new or second location.

“We regularly receive generous donations from grocers and other food distributors, but we do budget for important purchases, for items that are in high demand but low supply, and that does tend to happen around the holidays and beginning of the year,” Kambic said.

Over the years (2018-2023), the railroad has contributed $60,000 dollars to the Bensenville-Wood Dale Food Pantry, including donations made during the pandemic when the Holiday Train did not operate in 2020 and 2021, the spokesperson said in a statement.

“Every year, CPKC receives numerous requests from hundreds of communities across our network for the Holiday Train. The route and stops change from year to year to accommodate as many locations as possible and we donate to hundreds of community food banks,” the statement read. “This year we are stopping at more than 160 communities across the North American network, including two stops in the Chicago suburbs.”

The train, for instance, is scheduled to stop in Franklin Park on Nov. 26 in support of the Leyden Community Food Pantry.

DeSimone said the train’s arrival in Bensenville was a unique experience.

“The word ‘disappointment’ is probably a light word to use that it's not coming to our town. But again, that's OK. We'll pivot … we'll always make it better and do what's right for the community.”