Pantries face shortage as need for food rises

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Volunteer Carol McGarvey, of Chicago's Clearing neighborhood, fills food bags for the needy at the St. Blase Food Pantry in Summit. | Brett Roseman~Sun-Times Media

How to help

To make a donation to Catholic Charities, drop off at Catholic Charities Southwest Region Office, 7000 W. 111th St., Worth. For more information, call (708) 430-0428; catholiccharities.net

To make a donation to the Orland Township Food Pantry, visit 14807 Ravinia Ave., Orland Park; (708) 403-4222; www.orlandtwp.org/OrlandTwp/Pantry.html

To make a donation to Respond Now, visit 1439 Emerald Ave., Chicago Heights; (708) 755-4357; www.respondnow.org/

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Updated: November 10, 2011 2:02PM

First, Carol McGarvey lost her job. Then her car was repossessed, just months before it was scheduled to be paid off.

Now, the food pantry that she relies on to feed her three children is facing hard times.

So McGarvey, 47, rolls up her sleeves at least once a week and helps the Sisters of the Albertine order, box and distribute food at the pantry at St. Blase Church in Summit.

“When I first came here looking for help, they were so welcoming, I just wanted to help,” said McGarvey, who is divorced. “I don’t have a job right now so volunteering is my job.”

Though local food pantries can always use more helping hands, what they really need these days is food and money to buy more food.

Federal budget cuts, coupled with an increase in the number of clients, have organizers wondering how they’ll keep the shelves stocked through the coming winter.

“Before the recession we saw 1,300 to 1,500 people a month. Now we’re serving 2,100 to 2,300 a month,” said Jeff Sims, southwest regional representative for Catholic Charities, which runs the food pantry at St. Blase and a smaller one at the regional office in Worth.

On a recent tour of the basement facility, he pointed out half-empty pallets of canned goods that used to be stacked to nearly the ceiling.

“We’re already feeling the crunch,” he said.

And, with winter fast approaching, the timing couldn’t be worse.

The story’s the same at the Orland Township pantry and the Respond Now pantry in Chicago Heights.

A new study conducted by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, a nonprofit food distribution organization, reveals that in some Cook County communities, particularly the south suburbs, a third of all residents are experiencing “food insecurity.”

The Orland pantry typically services 200 to 250 families a month. In August, it helped feed 319.

“We’re seeing a surge of new people coming in, due to lost jobs and for medical reasons,” pantry coordinator Maianne Hill said.

At Respond Now, director Carl Wolf said their purchasing power has been weakened by increases in food prices and funding cuts. That pantry has seen a 50-percent jump in clients over the past three years, with a sharp spike since July 2011.

McGarvey relies on the St. Blase pantry to supplement her LINK card benefits.

So does Rick Donaldson, who does odd jobs for businesses and residences when he can. After he was evicted from his apartment last year, Donaldson spent several months living on the streets.

Finally, through a little creative self-promotion he recently found a room to rent in Summit. He put up signs, “Clean-cut gentleman looking for a room.”

A woman across the street from the church agreed to rent a basement room to him.

“You have to market yourself to get help these days,” he said.

Now he has a small refrigerator and a microwave, all he needs to keep and prepare the food he picks up at the pantry.

Sims said though the facility buys food at subsidized prices from the Greater Chicago Food Depository, their spending power will be affected by the budget cuts.

“We need to rely more heavily on local businesses, schools and organizations to help us,” he said.

Already, a number of businesses make it possible to supplement the monthly bag of canned and boxed foods with weekly supplies of bread, produce and pastries.

Labriola Bakery in Alsip and a nearby Trader Joe’s grocery store and a local Panera Bread drop off donations weekly.

Other groups and businesses take up collections of food or make donations on behalf of Catholic Charities. Sims said 92 cents of every dollar donated is guaranteed to go directly to programs sponsored by the organization.

Horton Insurance in Orland Park has set up vending machines in the company’s building with the proceeds being donated to Catholic Charities’ supper programs.

Jewel and Dominick’s donate unwanted or surplus items to the Food Depository, which then delivers them to local pantries.

Sims said pantries need both food and cash. On the one hand, a food drive raises awareness of local pantries and needy residents among the entire community. It’s an easy way for people to help.

But a donation of cash enables the pantry to buy even more food from the Food Depository, which sells meat, canned goods and produce at drastically reduced costs to local pantries.

“Either way, we benefit,” he said.

Both the Orland Township pantry and the Respond Now pantry are seeking donations of cash and food, particularly tuna, rice, peanut butter and juice. The Orland pantry also stocks pet food, which is greatly needed, as well.