Daily Herald opinion: Hope and help: Challenging time for food pantries must be met with action

“Stretched thin” is how the Northern Illinois Food Bank describes resources at charities providing food to those in need.

As president and CEO of the organization, Julie Yurko sees the strain firsthand. And while there are always challenges in feeding struggling families and individuals, recent changes — coupled with high grocery prices — are making their mission even more difficult, as staff writer Katlyn Smith chronicled in her story Sunday.

Yurko’s Geneva-based organization, for example, has seen a 30% drop in federal food support and funding, leading to a $3 million to $4 million gap.

At the same time, an overhaul to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is expected to increase demand for food at the food bank and food pantries.

Meeting that demand is a common worry across the region.

At the Schaumburg Township Food Pantry, about 31% of its households report that they’re SNAP recipients. Diana Nelson, who oversees the pantry within the Greater Chicago Food Depository network, said there’s been an average 8% increase in the number of households relying on the pantry in just the first eight months of the fiscal year.

Those challenges are further compounded by inflation and a tightening job market.

It’s a frightening time for those who struggle to put food on the table. For those of us who don’t, it is a time to step forward.

September is Hunger Action Month. And there are countless ways we can help.

We can make a monetary donation to the Northern Illinois Food Bank’s Community Response Fund, the Greater Chicago Food Depository or food pantries based out of townships, churches or other charitable organizations.

We can organize food drives at offices, schools and places of worship.

We can check food pantry wish lists and then add cans of tuna, jars of peanut butter and other food items to our shopping carts for donation.

We can stock up at sales or warehouse stores on toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo and other in-demand personal hygiene items to add to food donations.

We can participate in a virtual food drive for the Glen House Food Pantry in Glen Ellyn on Amazon.

We can share produce from our gardens and plant extra next year to make sure pantries have fresh vegetables to offer clients.

We can volunteer our time to sort donations or staff a pantry.

And we can watch for and contribute to this fall’s Daily Herald/Robert R. McCormick Foundation Neighbors in Need campaign, which raises money for organizations addressing hunger, health disparities and homelessness.

In other words, we can do our part to fill a much-needed gap.

“Is it a little bit heavier right now? Yes, it is,” Yurko said of the demand for food services. “Have we been through heavy before? We have. But we will be here. And I believe in the goodness of people and community, and I believe we all rise to this. I have to.”

We share in that belief.

We have to.