What a portmanteau name for a place that delivers irreplaceable community benefits!
Its mission is straightforward:
WE HAVE 1 GOAL, 1 MISSION.
TO FIGHT HUNGER,
1 DOLLAR, 1 MEAL, 1 PERSON AT A TIME.
UNTIL THE DAY
NO 1 GOES HUNGRY.
My wife and I have decided to give more generously to it this year than before ... to give special thanks for what it does for our neighbors throughout the Chicago area.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository has 160 employees ... and 22,000 volunteers. It is an efficiently managed organization. Roughly 93% of contributions to it go directly to gathering and distributing food through 650 pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and programs. This past year, it served 5 ½ million individuals.
Here's who it serves:
- 37% are children under 18
- 9% are children under 5
- 6% are homeless
- 34% of households include at least one employed adult
- 22% of households report their main source of income is from a job
- 47% of households say they have to choose between paying for food and utilities
- 44% report choosing between paying for food and rent or mortgage
In addition, it runs Community Kitchens, a 14 week culinary training program in basic kitchen skills for people who need a second, third, fourth chance to learn and develop marketable skills. The last two weeks are hands-on training at one of the GCFD-related programs. The training also includes basic life and work skills. On December 13, 2013, this program will award a diploma to its one thousandth graduate.
* *
What follows is a quick tour of the place. (Public tours are done the last week of the month. If you're in the area, call them to arrange yours.) The building is at:
4100 West Ann Lurie Place
Chicago, IL 60630
We're going to exit Stevenson Expressway at Pulaski, going South. Turn west on Ann Lurie Place and drive a block farther west. You can't miss it. It's huge, the size of five football fields. Here we are ...
It has a huge two-story warehouse that receives pallets for re-packing and distribution of products we take for granted on grocery store shelves. There are several sorting areas. One for fresh produce (it's 37% of GCFD's total distribution), some for kids who've never tasted a fresh apricot before. Another to organize food donated by suppliers in bulk (we're talking barrels, here) into family-size packages. One for assembling the bags and boxes of staples that will go to local pantries and soup kitchens, shelters and schools. One for organizing the food donations individuals have made at grocery stores and other locations throughout the area.
Its mission is aspirational. The scope and scale is breathtaking.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository needs a community that appreciates what it is doing for people who need a nutritious meal in a difficult economy.
It needs contributions. It needs volunteers. It needs us.