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player ready...The state of Illinois and the Greater Chicago Food Depository are teaming up to ensure migrants living in the city’s shelter system are fed through the end of the year after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration pushed back a deadline to award a food contract.
The city in mid-October solicited bids for a new food vendor contract that was to begin Friday, but last week the Johnson administration pushed that start date back a month and a half to Jan. 15, according to city records. The delay raised questions about whether migrants would be fed throughout December. The new deadline for food vendors to submit proposals was noon Friday.
A spokeswoman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management & Communications said late Friday that the deadline was pushed back twice in order to answer numerous questions from potential bidders.
On Friday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration announced the state would chip in $2 million and the food bank would contribute $2 million more raised through private philanthropy to close that gap and continue providing meals to the more than 13,000 migrants in city-run shelters and more than 1,000 sleeping at police stations and at O’Hare International Airport while awaiting placement.
“In Illinois — we welcome asylum seeking families with dignity and that means ensuring they don’t go hungry,” Pritzker said in a statement. “The state is continuing to make strategic investments in the absence of the resources and coordination we continue to advocate for from Congress and the federal government.”
The additional food funding comes roughly two weeks after the Pritzker administration, after months of deflecting questions about additional state funding for Chicago’s migrant crisis, promised $160 million in additional funding for several migrant-related projects. The new money is slated to set up a controversial tent encampment in Brighton Park and another bricks-and-mortar shelter for migrants, establish a centralized intake center for those arriving in the city, and provide legal and job assistance.
The state will be providing food at the two new shelter sites through its contract with GardaWorld Federal Services, a private security company that will set up and run day-to-day operations at the tent encampment in Brighton Park and an indoor shelter at a former CVS store in Little Village.
The state attributed the need for additional food funding for the existing shelter system to unspecified delays in the city’s bidding process.
At the city’s request, the state has provided $10.5 million since the summer to the Chicago food depository, with $5 million of that being distributed last month.
The food bank has used the money to serve about 20,000 hot meals a day at 20 shelters and at police stations, organization spokesman Jim Conwell said. He estimated the organization is spending approximately $1 million per week to feed migrants.
The food bank also has received several million dollars in commitments from the private sector, Conwell said. He added that he is not worried about the organization’s ability to meet needs through the end of the year.
“This is a significant investment,” he said. “This is a big project, but it’s a really important project because we believe that everybody deserves food and we are committed to doing this work.”
The food bank stepped up to provide meals for shelters at the same time it was already meeting record demands across the community for food assistance, Conwell said.
The food the organization provides at migrant shelters and police stations is only 10% of its total distribution. The remainder is distributed through its network of 800 food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and other programs.
Food distribution this fall is far higher than what it was at this same point in 2022, Conwell said.
“Our role as a food bank is to provide food for people who need it when they need it,” he said. “We don’t know what the coming months and year will bring with our mission to end hunger. We will do everything we can to meet that need.”
baiduhai’s Alice Yin contributed.
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