DuPage County Board to vote on $2.5 million for Loaves & Fishes project

DuPage County Board members will vote Tuesday on a proposal to provide $2.5 million to the nonprofit Loaves & Fishes in support of an expansion of its food distribution hub.

The multiplying Loaves & Fishes plans to add about 32,000 square feet of space to its Aurora hub, where food is received, stored and prepared for distribution. Loaves & Fishes is considered the largest food pantry in Illinois with a service area spanning DuPage, Will, Kane and Kendall counties.

“Cost of living is not going down,” CEO Mike Havala said. “We also have headwinds with respect to some public benefit programs like SNAP, Medicaid, so forth, which are certainly under pressure right now, and those make it very difficult, even more challenging, for people that are food insecure to make ends meet.”

Without additional infrastructure, the charitable food system “cannot keep pace with rising need,” Havala wrote in a letter to the DuPage County Board. The proposed $2.5 million would come from the county’s fiscal 2025 surplus funds.

“The demand has risen much faster than the capacity of our pantries to serve that need. Our pantries are pretty much at capacity with the resources and the infrastructure that exists today,” Havala said.

The construction project will double the size of the existing Aurora hub to 62,000 square feet. It will also mean more cold storage, “which is critical if you want to focus on healthy food,” Havala said. In addition, Loaves & Fishes will provide free cold storage and dry storage access to other pantries, fostering more collaboration in the pantry system.

“With Hub 2.0, we will be positioned to at least double the number of people we serve today, significantly increasing that direct community benefit,” Havala noted in his letter.

Endeavor Health announced in December that it will invest $1 million annually for five years — $5 million total — in Loaves & Fishes. Some of that grant is for programs and helping with food procurement.

“We get $700,000 a year for the next five years that goes for bricks and mortar on the hub,” Havala said.

The total project cost is $8 million. County board member Grant Eckhoff said he would like to see another county “put some skin in the game.”

Currently, Loaves & Fishes serves nearly 4,000 DuPage residents a week. In its most recent fiscal year, Loaves & Fishes provided approximately $12 million in food to DuPage residents.

“Double the $12 million in food that we're getting now seems to be a pretty good return on our investment of $2.5 million,” county board member Sam Tornatore said.

SNAP benefits were temporarily interrupted during the federal government shutdown last year. County Board Chairwoman Deb Conroy said that at the time, she asked staff to develop a “comprehensive plan” addressing food insecurity.

“One of the most important goals of our food program is to expand capacity to serve more people,” she said. “The Loaves and Fishes hub project helps us achieve that goal, and it facilitates partnerships within our community to more efficiently serve people in need.”

Since 2020, the county has expended more than $12.5 million in food and infrastructure capital grants to various organizations, officials say. Some of those funds came from federal pandemic relief and member initiative programs.

“Dozens of pantries, including some of the smallest, benefited from those programs,” county board member Greg Schwarze said.

As part of the county’s response to food insecurity, the board will also vote on $2 million for the Northern Illinois Food Bank to continue a fresh produce purchase program for member pantries. The food bank would use the funds over two years.