FOOD NEWS
Agriculture Secretary visits the Food Depository
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| U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack joined Kate Maehr, executive director of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, for a tour of the food bank. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has provided 605,000 pounds of food to date to the Food Depository. |
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack toured the Greater Chicago Food Depository on June 29 to learn more about how the USDA can help to meet the rising need in Cook County. Approximately 25 percent of the food the Food Depository distributes to pantries comes from the USDA, which also funds after-school Kids Cafes and the Summer Food Service Program.
Under the auspices of the USDA, the Food Depository has received 605,000 pounds of applesauce, canned peaches and mixed fruit because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The act aims to help individuals and families who are struggling because of the economic crisis. The Food Depository also distributes food to federally funded children’s programs including more than 40 after-school Kids Cafes and Summer Food Service Program sites. Secretary Vilsack helped serve lunch to children at one of those sites, St. Agatha’s Family Empowerment on the West Side.
“Too many kids in our country go hungry over the summer months,” Secretary Vilsack said. “The Summer Food Service Program is an important effort to ensure that all children have access to healthy, nutritious food even when school is out for the summer."
Southwest Side pantry helps community through hard times
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| Longtime volunteers Richard Barkauskas and Ron Kalat help distribute food every Tuesday at Emmaus Pantry. |
In the cramped basement of Risen Assembly of God Church on S. Archer Ave., rows of anxious visitors quietly wait. The diverse group, spanning all ages and races, has gathered this Tuesday afternoon for Emmaus Outreach Pantry’s weekly food distribution.
How has the recent economic crisis affected this neighborhood? “Take a look around,” one woman answered. “Look at all the buildings boarded up. Times are hard.”
Pantry Director Dena Bawinkel moved next door to Risen Assembly with her husband, the church’s pastor, in 1996, but it was not until 2001 that the need in her community became startlingly clear. Inundated with visitors asking for food and money, Dena “couldn’t just turn them away,” she said. Compelled to act, Dena and Risen Assembly parishioner Celia Perez enrolled in a Greater Chicago Food Depository training course to secure their food sanitation licenses and open a pantry to serve their struggling neighbors.
Emmaus continues to grow as one of the Food Depository’s 600 member agencies. The Food Depository awarded the pantry nearly $3,000 in grants in 2008 to help stock its shelves, cover utility costs and purchase new equipment. Emmaus’ dedicated volunteers, many of whom are also clients, help serve up to 150 people each week.
At 68 years old, Ron Kalat insists he “wouldn’t be here today” if it were not for the food he receives from Emmaus. Even as he and his wife struggle with health problems and mounting medical bills, Ron, a part-time security guard, has volunteered at Emmaus for the past three years and at the Food Depository for more than 25.
As food prices and unemployment rates continue to skyrocket, Emmaus also welcomes many new faces, like Kathleen Harpster, who recently picked up food to support herself and her 34-year-old son, as well as a bag of food for a bedridden friend.
A self-described “semi-retiree,” Kathleen, 62, would happily go back to work—if there were jobs available. With only a monthly Social Security check to make ends meet, Kathleen soon found herself sleeping on her son’s kitchen floor.
Kathleen now has a place of her own and, with the help of Emmaus, the food she needs.
“I never imagined I would be living like this,” Kathleen said. “But [Emmaus] has healthy food and a good variety.”
In the face of difficult times, community members have rallied around Emmaus Outreach Pantry to create a support system for their neighbors. As Emmaus volunteer Richard Barkauskas explained, “You just have to get out there and put smiles on people’s faces.”
Nourish for Knowledge bags increase nutritional value
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| Students of Henson Elementary School on the West Side receive their Nourish for Knowledge bags on a Friday afternoon. |
Getting crucial nutrients over the weekend just became easier for students across Chicagoland. The Nourish for Knowledge program, which provides take-home food bags to 5,570 Chicagoland schoolchildren, has taken important steps to address nutrition.
Distributed on Friday afternoons, the bags include approximately 15 ready-to-eat foods such as granola bars, fruit, and shelf-stable milk. Of the 35 Chicago elementary schools that currently receive Nourish for Knowledge bags, 27 schools are located in priority areas such as East Garfield Park, Humboldt Park and Englewood.
Last October, the Greater Chicago Food Depository commissioned nutritionist Jessica Allender of the Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion, a program of the University of Illinois at Chicago Neighborhoods Initiative, to assess food items to boost nutritional content.
Although the food fell within the recommended daily values for children 4 to 13 years old, limiting the sugar and sodium present in the bags and increasing fiber and protein content was a priority. High sugar and sodium intake can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, while a diet rich in fiber and protein helps level blood-sugar, ease digestion and ensure proper development.
The Food Depository lowered the bags’ daily sugar content by 62 grams to only 17 grams per serving by substituting fruit snacks with real fruit, replacing nearly 12 grams of processed sugar with natural sugar and adding 5 grams of fiber. The sodium content was lowered to a minimal 750 milligrams per serving. Switching high-sodium peanut-butter crackers for calcium enriched graham crackers and peanuts increased protein and eliminated 452 milligrams of excess sodium. Overall, fiber was increased seven-fold per serving and protein increased to 29 grams per serving.
Kelly Hall provides hope for a struggling community
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| Rev. Bob Lombardo of the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels celebrated the grand opening of Kelly Hall with Greater Chicago Food Depository Executive Director Kate Maehr on Jan. 15. |
The Greater Chicago Food Depository is joining forces with the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago and the Archdiocese of Chicago to help revitalize the West Humboldt Park neighborhood. Through their collaborative efforts, Kelly Hall, located at 824 N. Hamlin Ave., has been renovated into a full-service YMCA.
Built in 1968 to commemorate the 95 lives lost in the 1958 Our Lady of the Angels School fire, Kelly Hall has stood unused since 2001. As a part of 2006’s Cook County Unmet Need Study, the Food Depository identified Humboldt Park as one of the top 10 neighborhoods where the distribution of emergency and supplemental food did not meet the needs of the community.
The 20,000-square-foot facility has been updated to provide a bright and safe haven for the community and offer a variety of services, including after-school programs, gang intervention services, activities for seniors, a computer lab and a fitness center. Kelly Hall also will be the new home of the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels Pantry, previously located in the Our Lady of the Angels church rectory.
By helping stock the Kelly Hall pantry, Food Depository Executive Director Kate Maehr hopes the Kelly Hall YMCA provides West Humboldt Park with immediate and long-term relief. “Food can often be a hook,” Kate explained. “Once you're in that door … you're opened to the possibility of mentoring, tutoring, classes on healthy lifestyles and other resources that may ultimately help lift you out of that cycle of needing that bag of groceries in the first place.”
Representatives from the three organizations joined Cardinal Francis George and Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. on Jan. 15 for the grand opening ceremony.
“It is essential that organizations work collaboratively in these trying times to meet increasing needs and continue providing vital human services in low-income, high-risk communities,” said Stephen S. Cole, president and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago.
For Rev. Bob Lombardo of the Mission, the new Kelly Hall provides the resources to move the community forward and a symbol of hope. “We must continue to work together to make dreams a reality,” he said.
