Food pantry cited for prayer needs a bigger space

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Updated: November 11, 2011 5:40PM

Not much has changed at Operation Blessing-South since the organization was told it no longer would qualify for federal food distribution because it offered to pray with clients.

I wrote about the food pantry in Crestwood earlier this month and thought I would touch base to see what had happened in the ensuing weeks.

“We’ve gotten some donations from church organizations and a few checks and some offers of help from private individuals,” said Frank Sorice, manager of Operation Blessing-South.

“So, in a way your column was a blessing,” he said.

I asked Sorice if the state, which regulates the distribution of U.S. Department of Agriculture food, had reached out to him since the column ran.

“No, we haven’t heard from anyone,” Sorice said. “The food has stopped coming, and we still haven’t replaced all of it. But we’re working on that.”

Sorice said he has contacted U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s office and spoken with people representing U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-11th) who were cordial and promised to look into the matter.

He said he’s in the process of writing dozens of letters to other state and federal officials, “but we’re pretty busy here dispensing food to the needy.”

The food pantry dispenses food to about 1,300 families, or 4,000 people, a month and the number is growing.

“I don’t have to tell you how bad the economy is right now,” Sorice said.

“The demand for food has tripled in the last few years. A lot of the new people we have coming in are construction workers, who have never been in need of help before in their lives — carpenters, electricians, that sort of thing.”

For those who may not remember my earlier column, Sorice maintains Operation Blessing-South doesn’t force anyone to pray to get food.

He contends that clients are asked in a private office if they wish to pray and, if they do, a prayer is said.

If not, Sorice said, people are given their food and sent on their way.

But federal government regulations forbid proselytizing at distribution sites where its food is offered, and a state investigator warned Operation Blessing if it did not stop saying prayers with clients it would lose its eligibility.

Operation Blessing, an organization born out of a religious mission to help the needy, decided it would not stop offering prayers.

When I first talked to Sorice he told me that his organization really needed a larger space to store and distribute food, but I chose to focus on the controversy over the state’s decision to cut off the federal food allowance.

He mentioned the need for a larger space again in our conversation this week.

“If we had a larger space, an empty warehouse or industrial building, we could feed three times the people that we do now,” Sorice said.

“I’m confident we could come up with the food donations if we could get the proper space,” he said.

He said his organization sometimes is forced to refuse donations because it doesn’t have the proper equipment to unload trucks.

“We do everything here by hand,” Sorice said. “Our space doesn’t have any docks. We don’t have forklifts. So our people, all volunteers except for me, have to physically get into the trucks and unload every donation we get. Some of our people are a little on the elderly side, so it isn’t easy.

Sorice said a larger space also would allow him to add refrigerators and freezers for food storage.

“It (a new space) doesn’t even have to be a donation,” he said. “If we could work out a long-term deal at a reasonable rent, I think I could round up the contributions to make it work.”

The food pantry operates out of a converted garage next to a body shop at 4330 Midlothian Turnpike in Crestwood.

It serves an area that ranges from 79th Street in Chicago on the north to 175th Street in Hazel Crest on the south and from Halsted Street on the east to LaGrange Road on the west.

“I don’t know anything about real estate,” Sorice said, “I probably don’t have the right contacts, but I’m confident if we could just find the right person we could get a bigger space. The only goal is to feed as many people as possible. Our space limits what we can do. It’s very frustrating when you see how many needy people there are.”

Operation Blessing-South can be contacted at (708) 597-6326.

Clarification

Sculptor Erik Blome telephoned me to make it clear that he finished his work on the beams for the First Responders Memorial in Oak Lawn weeks before the 10th anniversary of 9/11 earlier this month.

“The delay was caused because the village failed to install the concrete foundation,” he said. “I worked through the summer without a vacation to finish the sculpture on time, and I finished it ahead of time.

“I have worked on many public projects, and this was the first time the foundation had not been completed in time to install my work,” he said.