For more than 30 years, New Hope Bible Church has offered a soup kitchen to their Hermosa neighbors, using their own resources until they partnered with the Greater Chicago Food Depository in 2012. A few years ago, they saw the need for food assistance in the community rise.
“We began to wonder what happened for our guests the rest of the week,” said Ruth Castillo, who helps with the food pantry the church opened in September 2023, also in partnership with the Food Depository.
Elvia Mendoza Salgado gets food for her household of five. (Photos by Nancy Stone for the Food Depository.)
Soon after the pantry was launched, the need for such a resource became abundantly clear. At first, New Hope’s pantry saw about 400 households each month. By year’s end, that number grew 200 percent to 1,200 households a month.
Ongoing financial challenges
Like many throughout Chicago and Cook County, these neighbors are still dealing with the lingering effects of inflation as well as the elevated cost of food and housing. The past few years have brought one financial challenge after another, which is especially difficult for neighbors already struggling to make ends meet.
“We’ve had a lot of people from day one. People were crying they were so happy to receive the food,” Castillo said.
Ruth Castillo, who helps with the pantry, has recruited her mom, brother and husband to volunteer.
New Hope was the Food Depository’s first partner pantry in the Hermosa neighborhood, where nearly 37 percent of residents now live below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (a common measure of need), well higher than the national average of 28 percent.
“Guests tell us all the time how important the pantry is for them,” Castillo said. “They say they’re grateful they now don’t have to worry or decide whether to eat or pay bills.”
An important resource
Julio Vasquez appreciates the fresh fruits and vegetables at the pantry.
Hermosa resident Julio Vasquez is one of the many grateful guests. Over the past several years, he’s been waiting for things to get a little easier. First, the pandemic brought everything to a halt, then decimated the restaurant industry, where he worked for 38 years before his retirement.
Next, food prices and inflation soared, making it difficult for Vasquez and his wife to survive on their fixed income.
“With grocery prices going up and other bills to pay, it’s hard to afford everything,” he said. “That’s why this pantry is so important. It offers good help.”
Janesky Osorio, right, calls the help she receives at the pantry “spectacular.”
Janesky Osorio, 54, visits the pantry to get food for her household of four, including her husband, ailing mother and grandson. “This is spectacular,” she said while gathering ingredients to make arepas (stuffed cornmeal cakes), her specialty. “It’s so organized and I love all the people here.”
Dignity to decide
Osorio isn’t the only pantry guest who likes how the pantry is organized. Guests tell Castillo they appreciate the way it’s set up like a market, with shopping carts and aisles of food to choose from. When Castillo was a child and her parents went to pantries, she recalls them receiving pre-boxed food, some of which they couldn’t use.
“Guests appreciate having the dignity to decide what they want,” she said. “It’s one of the things they love most.”
Amanda Morocho likes cooking with her mom, Maria, with the food they get at the pantry.
When Maria Morocho, 45, visits New Hope’s pantry, she’s happy to select spaghetti and tomato sauce, her 8-year-old daughter Amanda’s favorite. In addition to needed nutrition, the food also helps the mother and daughter connect, as the second grader likes to help her mom cook.
Morocho visits the pantry to help feed her family of five, including her husband and their three children, ages 11, 8 and 4. Her husband works parttime and she stays home to care for their kids. “It’s hard to afford groceries,” she said. “This pantry is a great help.”
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