Thanksgiving is the most foodcentric of holidays.
It’s not a day for giving and getting presents. Thanksgiving is a time to gather with family and friends and celebrate each other.
And the centerpiece of this gathering, the symbolic focus, is Thanksgiving dinner, traditionally turkey and all the trimmings.
How sad and stinging must Thanksgiving be for those who don’t have a turkey, or maybe even the trimmings.
In this land of plenty, there are people who don’t have enough to eat. Bureaucratically speaking, they are “food insecure;” that is, they don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
And they don’t just live some other place. They live here, too.
In Oak Park alone, the Oak Park-River Forest Food Pantry estimates, there are more than 6,000 people who are food insecure.
The nonprofit food pantry feeds hungry people in Oak Park, River Forest, Forest Park, Elmwood Park, Franklin Park, Schiller Park, River Grove, Berwyn, Stickney and the Austin and Humboldt neighborhoods of Chicago. Last year, the food pantry distributed food to 16,063 families composed of 45,959 individuals.
There is great need. Our hungry friends and neighbors need the Oak Park-River Forest Food Pantry. And the food pantry needs you, needs your donations, needs you to volunteer.
Donations of food are gratefully accepted, pantry staff members say. But, monetary donations are particularly helpful. Because of its many food partners and its relationship with the Greater Chicago Food Depository the pantry can really stretch a dollar. Food bought through the Greater Chicago Food Depository is at an average cost of 55 cents per pound, according to the Oak Park food bank.
Donors also can combine a night out with helping the pantry. Jeff Tweedy will perform a benefit concert for the food pantry from 7 to 11 p.m. Nov. 20 at Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago. Tickets cost $125.
The food pantry uses about 1,700 hours each month on such tasks as stocking shelves, rescuing food from grocery stores, working with clients. To find out more about volunteering, email [email protected].
The Oak Park-River Forest Food Pantry is located on the lower level of First United Church of Oak Park, 848 Lake St., Oak Park.
Giving to those in hunger through the food pantry is going to make your Thanksgiving brighter.
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And it will make those you help thankful for you.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.