Niles Township food pantry officials say they’ve watched the number of people the pantry serves skyrocket from 3,500 in November 2015 to 5,000 a year later, prompting the organization to look to the community for more help.
Officials who work with the food pantry said the increased demand at the food pantry, located at 5255 Main Street in Skokie, so far has been met with a combination of holiday food drives and an influx of individual donations from the public and the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the parent of the Niles Township Food Pantry.
Organizations from across Niles Township—which includes the villages of Skokie, Lincolnwood, Golf and sections of Morton Grove, Niles and Glenview—have pitched in to help gather donations for the holiday season, officials report.
Donations for the holiday season help ensure families who depend on the food pantry will have enough food to set their Thanksgiving tables, according to Tony Araque manager of the Niles Township Food Pantry. But by January and February, the food bank risks being in a shortage, he said.
“We serve clients all year and people tend to forget us after the holidays,” Araque said. “The demand is rising because food is expensive and people either aren’t working or their salaries aren’t rising with inflation.”
The food pantry passed out 95,500 pounds of food to 5,000 people in October, Araque said.
The food pantry expects to pass out additional meals in November and December for the holidays, including a supplemental Thanksgiving dinner complete with a frozen turkey and all the fixings.
Thanksgiving meals were supplied by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, but the food pantry also must meet an increasing demand for food during the six-week stretch of the holiday season, officials said.
The Niles Township government purchased a new 1,800 square-foot walk-in refrigerator and freezer to store fresh produce and meats, which officials said allows the food pantry to offer families healthier options than the canned and boxed foods usually distributed.
Local grocery chains provide much of the fresh produce stocked in the food pantry, Araque said, and in warmer months volunteers and staff harvest fruits and veggies from a community garden planted on the property.
“The offering of the types of food we have has definitely changed, and before we had the walk-in freezer we couldn’t even store this stuff,” he said. “Now we have fresh everything.”
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The food pantry is open four days a week with morning and afternoon hours, as well as additional evening ours on Tuesdays.
Natalie Hayes is a freelancer.