Holiday Food Drive aims to help those in need in Aurora

For the 19th straight year, the Holiday Food Drive will be held to help fill the shelves at the Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry.

It’s a drive that started on Nov. 1 and runs through the day before Thanksgiving ― this year Nov. 25 ― and involves local businesses, radio personalities and community members to help neighbors facing hunger.

“When people are aware of the need, we are superlucky,” said Katie Arko, Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry director. “When we’re getting the word out, the community responds.”

And the need increases each year, both in the number of clients and the ways pantry workers must deliver the food. In the year from August 2025 through July 2026, the pantry served 23,041 individuals representing 6,957 households. Some 2,489 of those households were first-timers, or about 36% of households served.

The pantry served more than 3 million pounds of food during that time, serving a population largely in Kane and Kendall counties, about 86% of the clients.

All this was done during a time of what officials called a “trickle down” effect of state food benefits being cut and inflationary costs not only for food, but for the cost of everything.

“Because the cost of things is so high, we’re seeing some people struggling for the first time,” said Heather Short, the pantry’s development director. “We’re doing more, serving more and it’s costing us more. Standard programs are costing us more.”

The pantry also has incurred more costs due to increased ways of delivering to its clients. The operation is now six days a week with the traditional market shopping days at the pantry on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; drive-thru service at the pantry on Saturday; home deliveries on Wednesday; and outreach to places like Hesed House, group homes, senior centers and schools on Friday. Those Fridays are handled by an actual truck the pantry owns, thanks to a grant from the office of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.

“It’s a sign of the increased need,” Arko said.

The home deliveries have increased so that the pantry now dedicates one staff member just to that program. Workers used to do about 60 deliveries a week, but that has now increased to about 125 to 175 a week.

Most of those deliveries go to to the elderly and people who are homebound for one reason or another. The program requires routes to be set up, and volunteers to make the deliveries.

“We’ve dedicated a staff member just to that program alone,” Arko said.

As in past years, the food drive is centered around three Aurora grocery stores: Prisco’s Family Market, 1108 Prairie St., Aurora; Cermak Fresh Market, 1250 N. Lake St., Aurora; and Food Market La Chiquita, 1525 Douglas Road, Montgomery. Shoppers simply purchase a packaged bag of food and leave it at the store for donation to the pantry. Supporters can also fill a virtual bag with an online donation at aurorafoodpantry.org/holidayfooddrive/.

Sponsors for the Aurora Holiday Food Drive are: La Chiquita Food Mart; Prisco’s Family Market; Cermak Fresh Food Market; Aurora FastPrint; Old National Bancorp; Dolan & Murphy, Inc.; Factor; Konen Insurance; Aurora Bank & Trust; Gerald Subaru of North Aurora; Cyrus One; Mendel Plumbing, Heating & Electric; Bob’s Discount Furniture Charitable Foundation Inc.; Rush Copley Medical Center; Accurate Color & Compounding; and Jake’s, Inc.

Steve Lord is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.