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ECC food pantry to serve Thanksgiving meal for patrons

Elgin Community College's campus food pantry will host a Thanksgiving-style buffet dinner Friday for patrons and their families who benefit from its resources, officials said.

The Spartan Food Pantry, which opened Feb. 17, is operated and stocked by members of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, whose mission includes community service. It aims to benefit the 28 percent of ECC students who are economically disadvantaged.

Since then, the pantry has benefitted 152 students and the number of visits has grown from 165 in the spring to 426 so far this semester, said Amybeth Maurer, director of Orientation and Student Life.

"We are really working hard to get the word out to students (through posters, emails and tables promoting the pantry) and that has increased our number of visits," Maurer said. "We keep brainstorming ways to bring people in. One of the things we would like to do is spend this year raising awareness. Not everybody knows we are here."

Pantry operators promote a "food of the week" when they get a surplus of any one item, such as green beans, and put out recipes offering patrons cooking ideas. They also are raffling cookbooks on how to eat for less than $4 a day and gift certificates to Aldi's grocery store.

The Thanksgiving dinner is a way of recognizing patrons, many of whom donate food back to the pantry when they can, Maurer said.

"That's an opportunity to say we appreciate the support," Maurer said. "We really want people to feel dignified. We're not trying to highlight the fact that somebody needs assistance. We want to make sure that student success is really the most important thing."

Roughly 60 patrons and their family members will be served a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at 7 p.m. in the Community Heritage Room of Building B at the college's Elgin campus, 1700 Spartan Drive.

Phi Theta Kappa volunteers will be raffling Spartan Food Pantry T-shirts, cookbooks, and gift certificates, said Jeremy Robles, 19, of Streamwood, food pantry officer and an ECC sophomore studying computer science.

Attendees will be given paper leaves on which they can write for what they are thankful. The leaves will be placed on a tree as part of the pantry's holiday decor, Robles added.

Robles, who devotes several hours to the pantry each week, said it has helped him come out of his shell.

"I really love how this makes me grow as a person," he said.

Few colleges statewide - College of Lake County, Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, and the University of Illinois - have similar food programs for low-income students, according to the College and University Food Bank Alliance.

Representatives from College of DuPage took notice of ECC's pantry and recently approached Maurer to learn about the program.

"They were interested in maybe pursuing that on their campus," she said.

Pantry operation hours for the semester are 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays, noon to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, and 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays. Donations of nonperishable goods and other basic necessities/personal grooming items can be dropped off at the ECC campus Student Life office. Donations by check should be made out to the ECC Foundation but marked for food pantry use and mailed to 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin, IL 60123.

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