More than 200 local families were given the gift of food this holiday season courtesy of the Chessmen Club of the North Shore

Chessmen Club members join volunteers and school personnel in front of about 90 food baskets being donated to families.

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For the last 50 years, the non-profit organization has purchased and delivered holiday food baskets to Evanston families. This year, club members gathered at the Jewel/Osco on Green Bay Road the day before Christmas Eve to purchase food for the baskets, which were then distributed to seniors and families at various social service and senior centers throughout Evanston.

“Today is really about the values of giving back,” said Keith Terry, Chessmen Club member and District 65 School Board president. “This warms my heart.”

Terry and other Chessmen Club members finished basket distributions at Oakton Elementary School, where baskets were given to about 90 families with children enrolled in Oakton Elementary School’s African Center Curriculum program.

Started in 2006, the ACC program serves about 93 students in grades kindergarten through 5th and is designed to improve educational achievement in African American students with a focus on teaching African and African American history and culture.

“We want to teach children to believe in themselves,” said kindergarten ACC teacher Neidra Berry. “We want them to know that they can do anything they set their minds to doing.”

Many of Oakton’s students receive free or reduced lunches due to their economic situations, which made the Chessmen Club baskets that much more important, said 1st grade ACC teacher Claudia Braithwaite.

“This holiday, with the economic situation the way it is and people losing jobs, the Chessmen decided that they wanted to be able to help our families as much as possible,” Braithwaite said.

“The Chessmen have big golden hearts just to be able to give,” Berry added.

Fourth grader Chantelle Ebanks was all smiles when she stopped by the school with her mother Ann Murray to pick up their food basket.

“I’d like to thank the Chessmen because my mom couldn’t buy a turkey, so now we have a basket of food,” Ebanks said. “I want to with [the Chessmen] a merry Christmas.”

The Chessmen Club was founded in 1958 by two police officers, Andrew Rodez and William Logan, Jr. Every year, the club hosts a gala where the money raised is used to provide scholarships to high school students and to purchase food for the baskets.

This year’s gala is scheduled for Feb. 19 at Highland Park Country Club.