Glendale Heights food drive benefits Glen Ellyn pantry
Residents with unused cans of beans or boxes of pasta are being invited to drop them off in Glendale Heights as part of the village's annual food drive that continues through June 27.
All items collected during the drive, which began June 2, will be donated to the Glen Ellyn Food Pantry.
Collection boxes are located inside village hall, the Center for Senior Citizens and the Sports Hub, according to Tanya Macko, the police department's community outreach specialist.
Move For Hunger, an organization that takes unwanted food from those who are moving and gives it to food banks, and moving company Crown Relocations are partnering with the village on the project.
The Glen Ellyn Food Pantry serves Carol Stream, Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, Lombard, Glendale Heights and Lisle.
In 2013, the pantry served about 5,000 families and distributed 32,000 bags of food, Executive Director Susan Papierski said.
The food drive comes just in time, Papierski said. Although the demand for food does not drop in the summer, donations often do.
"People go on vacation, school's out, people are real busy doing other things, and so the summer months are traditionally a much slower donation time," she said. "So this is perfect timing for a food drive."
So far this year, Papierski said, the amount of food the pantry has distributed has increased by 65 percent compared to last year during the same period.
She said distributions have increased because the pantry has more food to distribute and more people are going to the pantry for services.
"I don't know that there are more people out there who are hungry," she said. "I think ... more people are finding out about our pantry and we're able to serve more because we have more food, and so they're coming because they know we have the ability to serve them."