Jackie Maddamma, 44, is hosting Thanksgiving this year for her two daughters, ages 18 and 5, her fiancé and her oldest daughter’s boyfriend. “You gotta have turkey and potatoes . . . and pie,” Maddamma said as she stood in line at the Irving Park Community Food Pantry’s holiday food distribution earlier this month. The pantry is part of the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s food access network.
This year, those Thanksgiving meal favorites weren’t a given for Maddamma. Months ago, her rent increased and her SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits decreased. She had visited the Irving Park pantry years earlier during a season when finances were tight, and started visiting again recently to help supplement her family’s grocery needs.
Jackie Maddamma was one of nearly 300 neighbors at the Irving Park Community Food Pantry’s holiday distribution this month. (Photos by Jamie Kelter Davis for the Food Depository.)
Maddamma appreciates the variety of food the pantry offers, especially the meats, cereals and nuts. This month, she’s also grateful for the ingredients that will help her family enjoy a festive Thanksgiving meal.
Heightened needs, holiday extras
Maddamma was one of nearly 300 neighbors who attended Irving Park Community Food Pantry’s November holiday distribution, a 33 percent increase from last year. The pantry has seen a rise in guests throughout the year, part of an area-wide trend.
Throughout 2024, the Food Depository’s network of 800 partner food pantries, soup kitchens and other programs across Cook County has served 25 percent more guests than last year. Thanks to generous donors, we have been able to alleviate the rising need and continue providing food to our partners at no cost.
John Psiharis is the executive director of Irving Park Community Food Pantry, which serves about 600 households a month.
“We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the Food Depository,” said Irving Park Community Food Pantry executive director John Psiharis.
The pantry has served its community for 40 years, driven by the motto “neighbors helping neighbors.”
At the year-end holidays, the Food Depository distributes an additional 2.6 million pounds of holiday food items, including turkeys, hams, whole chickens, gravy, cranberry sauce and cornbread mix. Nearly 160,000 households will be served with holiday food this November and December in hopes that all of our neighbors will be able to enjoy a holiday meal with their loved ones.
Irving Park Community Food Pantry has a robust volunteer community that enjoys working together to serve its neighbors.
A blessing from the community
Andrea Johnson was eager to get some cranberry sauce at the Irving Park pantry so she can make her mom’s traditional cranberry-orange salad this Thanksgiving. Johnson hasn’t been able to work since a back injury five months ago and says the pantry has been “a blessing from the community” during the resulting financial squeeze.
Andrea Johnson, pictured here with husband George, says she’s the “chef of the house” and enjoys making dishes both look and taste good.
“Food stamps [SNAP benefits] don’t carry enough of the month. We can barely pay rent, gas and groceries. We scrape by,” Johnson said.
“This helps subsidize our groceries. Pantries like this are such a godsend to those of us in need. If not for places like this, how would people make it?”
Maria Cejeda, 50, visited the pantry out of a similar sense of need. “I almost didn’t come because it’s so cold outside, but realized I had to come, we need food,” she said. Her husband does his best to support their family of five on his income, but Cejeda says it’s a challenge.
Oliver Curtis, 68, said of the holiday distribution, “This will make our Thanksgiving, especially the turkey.”
“Groceries are so expensive. Sometimes we have to choose between eating meat or eggs,” she said. This Thanksgiving, her 10-year-old daughter wants to make mashed potatoes and one of her older daughters is excited to bake – all with ingredients Cejeda gets from the pantry.
“This pantry means a lot,” she said. “I’m grateful.”
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